The Purple Haired Craze

In Which A Time Traveller Is Discovered

It was clear to all mages who were working at the Sanctuary on October the twelfth that Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain were not in good moods. Generally, even if they were in one of their better moods, most employees would still go out of their way to avoid them if possible. If they were severely annoyed, this unspoken rule about not getting in their way was doubly important to follow. There was no knowing what could happen to the unwitting stragglers that ended up in their line of path.

As it was, the loud hustle and bustle of the Sanctuary was immediately silenced that morning when Detectives Pleasant and Cain swept down the long corridors that were filled with tension towards the Grand Mage's office.

The less notable employees wondered what was wrong. Those higher up in the Sanctuary didn't want to wonder about what could have happened. If it had got the Irish Sanctuary's top detectives vexed, then it was very likely to be something pretty bad.

Valkyrie stalked into Erskine Ravel's office directly behind her partner and best friend. The Grand Mage took one look at Skulduggery's taut and rigid stance and her own furrowed expression before he speed dialled Ghastly Bespoke.

"Sit yourselves down then," he told them.

They sat in an awkward and tense silence, waiting impatiently for Ghastly's arrival.

They didn't need to wait long. They heard the scarred tailor's heavy footfalls before he burst into the room.

"What is today's emergency then?" he asked.

Skulduggery gave him a look (not easy to do when you don't have a face, but he managed). "We found the person who is responsible for all these people who are randomly disappearing. Apparently her name is Iyzebel Trix and she is a time traveller and has been sending all these people into the past, or even the future."

Ghastly frowned. "I swear time travellers didn't exist."

"So did we, until we talked to Gordon about it," Valkyrie put in. "There aren't that many out there and most the time they aren't even in our time period. According to him, it is a derivative of dimension shunting, but slightly more useful. Even so, very few people from our time have picked up the discipline, which is why we thought it didn't exist."

"There are many laws on the discipline, which does make it not as desirable as a skill. One of the main rules is that taking other people into a different time frame is illegal, particularly mortals, and making contact with people in other times is also restricted due to the problem of creating paradoxes altering things."

Erskine stood. "Well then, you two had better get going. I couldn't see anyone doing a better job on this case than you two anyway, so unless something more world changing occurs, you can continue with this one. Arrest Iyzebel Trix. Then we can figure out how to rescue the stranded people."

Valkyrie gave a sharp nod, also standing. "Come on then Skul, we've got work to do."

Skulduggery tilted his head towards her and remained seated. "Go to the Bentley, Val. I need to talk to Erskine and Ghastly for a moment. I won't be long."

She arched an eyebrow, puzzled at Skul's request. He hardly ever kept anything secret from her, let alone share the secret with Ghastly and Erskine. Either the secret was one she knew, or something that no one knew.

But, then again, it could just be something to do with guy stuff. She decided to let it lie.

"Are you sure," asked Ghastly, a horrified expression across his face. "But that means..."

"If my theory is correct and what I fear will happen does," Skulduggery told them, "then yes, Valkyrie is going to die."

"Erskine swore loudly. "That ain't good."

Deep down, Ghastly really couldn't see how this was ever going to be avoided without a drastic change to the world today. The reason Skulduggery was a skeleton was due to the fact that Valkyrie existed. There really was nothing that the skeleton could do to protect his beautiful partner-in-crime now. They had already had many close calls with death together and she, miraculously always survived.

Then again, her death day had not been any of those close shaves. She had a death that seemed to be set in stone. There wasn't anything that Skulduggery could do.

They could still try. "Skul, you have to keep an eye on her. Stay within close proximity of her at all times- that shouldn't be too difficult, until Trix is captured."

Skulduggery nodded sharply. The skeleton would have done so anyway without his order. With a nod from Erskine, Detective Pleasant was dismissed. As soon as their friend was out of earshot, Ghastly turned to Erskine.

"He isn't going to be able to stop this, you know."

"I know. But he can fool himself by pretending he can. We can't tell him otherwise."

I warned him, when he first met Val. He shouldn't have shown her magic in the first place.

"She would have found her way in sooner or later," Erskine told him. "Even without Skul's help. Although it will be hard on him and her."

The two mages sat there in silence at this last thought.