Jane led the way back to her small, ivy-covered cottage, the wicker basket of berries swinging rhythmically against her hip. Kai, Julia, and Alicia followed in a loose, wary line until they stepped over the threshold into a room that smelled of dried herbs.
Jane set the basket on a rustic wooden table and turned, her gaze settling on Kai with a sharp, piercing clarity, "So," she began with a steady voice, "To what do I owe this unexpected visit from you, Kai? You don't exactly strike me as the type to drop by for tea and pleasantries."
"Hardly," Kai said, leaning against the doorframe and checking his cuticles, "This is about the Third Key and the little scavenger hunting the scheming Librarians have handed to Penny. It's all part of their grand effort to get magic back up and running under their thumb."
Jane's hands stilled on the berries. She looked at him, then at Julia and Alicia, her expression shifting into one of grim skepticism. "That's practically an impossibility."
"What? Why?" Julia asked, her brow furrowing. "If the keys exist, why is it impossible?"
Kai let out a dry, knowing chuckle. "Oh... so you do know about what's lurking under Fillory, don't you, Jane?"
Alicia looked between them, her eyes darting back and forth, "What is she talking about? What's under Fillory?"
"Of course I know," Jane said, her voice dropping an octave. She pulled out a chair and sat down, "I've lived through thirty-nine timelines, after all. Some of them required me to venture down into the dark. I've seen the original Castle Blackspire. I've seen that... thing, whatever it is, trapped in the cellar of the world." She looked up at Kai and he could see her eyes reflecting a cold fear, "Why would the Librarians do this? They know damn well what that creature is. They know it should never be let loose and to use the keys to open that door is madness."
"Desperation," Alicia said softly, leaning against the wall. "It makes you do things you'd never imagine yourself doing. Even if you're a Librarian who thinks they're above it all."
Jane snorted with a sharp, bitter sound, "Well, it's stupid if you ask me. The risk is significantly greater than the reward. You don't trade the safety of the multiverse for a bit of metered magic."
"Oh, I know," Kai said. He pushed off the doorframe and walked closer to her, his blue eyes narrowing as if he were trying to read the fine print on her soul. "But tell me something, Jane... what time-stamp are you exactly?"
Jane blinked, taken aback by the sudden question, "I beg your pardon?"
"No, I'm genuinely wondering," Kai said with a look of curiosity as he beheld her form with fascination, "What's the last thing you remember? Is this a version of you that has been tucked away here since before the tragedy? Or are you the version that already knows the feel of your brother's hands around your throat?"
Jane let out a long, shuddering breath, her fingers tracing the rim of a wooden, "Temporal reassessment," she murmured, "It's... difficult to explain. Whatever is happening in the current stream, in the 'now' you inhabit, it funnels to me. It feels like a memory resurfacing, even if the event hasn't technically happened yet in the linear sense. I remember our last conversation, Kai. I remember the weight of the air, the look in my brother's eyes... and I remember the end."
She looked up with an expression that looked hauntingly hollow, "I know quite well that I am dead. That is why I cannot leave this clearing. The moment I step beyond the veil of the Barrens, the debt of time will be called in. The universe will realize I'm a ghost holding a physical shape, and I'll simply... stop being."
"So you're a time remnant," Kai said, nodding slowly as he paced the small room. "A stray page from a book that's already been closed, tucked away where the Librarian can't find it."
Jane tilted her head, considering the term. "Hmm. I've never thought of it quite like that before, but yes. That is precisely what my current existence is, a lingering echo."
Kai stopped pacing and looked around the quaint cottage, his eyes sparkling with a familiar, dangerous mischievous idea, "So, tell me... if you were to move to a place outside this specific time and space, a place where Time doesn't recognize your face and the rules follow a completely different authority. Would you live?"
Jane let out a soft, sad laugh. "That's not possible, Kai. All time and space exist in tandem. There is no 'different authority' with its own rules separate from the weave of Time itself. There are forbidden places, yes, and places impossible to reach, but they all still answer to the same clock."
Kai's smirk widened into something triumphant, "Well, that's not entirely true, you see. I have a… what should I call it?"
He paused, throwing his arms out in an exaggerated, theatrical pose that made Julia roll her eyes and Alicia to shake her head.
"A personal place of resting!" Kai announced, "Much like what you're familiar with, but separated by a different set of laws entirely." He leaned in close to Jane, his eyes glowing with an intensity that seemed to push back the very shadows of the cottage.
"My laws and authority. A place where the universe doesn't get to decide who stays and who goes. I do."
Jane looked at him through narrowed, skeptical eyes, her posture shifting from a weary woman to a calculating strategist, "Are you offering me an escape from this purgatory, Kai? A guarantee that the moment I cross the threshold, the time stream won't simply decide I'm an accounting error and erase me?"
Kai tilted his head, his hands shoved deep into his pockets and moved a few feet back, "And if I was?"
The air in the small cottage grew suddenly thick with the probability of a new option. Jane didn't pull back; instead, she stepped into his space. She moved with a slow, feline grace, her eyes locked onto his with a small, devious and seductive smile. She leaned in, her voice dropping into a purr that brushed against his ear.
"Well, in that case... I'd have to ask what the price is."
'"Ahem'"
The sharp, dry sound of Julia clearing her throat cut through the tension like a guillotine. She stood there with an eyebrow arched so high it was nearly lost in her hairline. Beside her, Alicia crossed her arms firmly under her impressive boobs, with a flat and unimpressed expression.
"What exactly are you doing?" Alicia asked and Kai could practically feel the iciness of her tone.
Jane paused, her gaze sliding off Kai to look at the two women. Her eyes lingered on Alicia's chest for a beat then to Julia's for a lot longer than necessary, her expression flickering with a brief, curious spark of appreciation and curiosity before she looked back at Kai.
"Oh," Jane breathed, a playful smirk dancing on her lips, "My mistake, I didn't realize you'd been taken, Kai. And not by one, but by these two? Efficient." She licked her lips, a gesture that made Kai raise an eyebrow in genuine surprise. 'No way,' he thought, 'Is she actually hitting on all of us?'
"This place of yours," Jane continued, pulling back just enough to regain her professional composure. "Where is it, exactly?"
"It's a personal dimension," Kai explained, his voice returning to its usual casual cadence. "Created with my own magic, anchored outside the reach of the Neitherlands which anchors the multiverse."
Jane frowned, "Space that cuts out of this time and space? How did you manage to separate the concept of existence from its original origin flow? You can't just 'unplug' from the multiverse you know."
Kai smirked. "Oh, I didn't unplug it. I merely copied the source code you see and my unique brand of magic did the rest." He paused with a grin on his face before continuing, "Well, not my magic per se. I used the raw, unfiltered power I 'borrowed' from your dear brother after he gorged himself on the Wellspring to build the conceptual walls of that space. It's Fillorian converted to my magic, repurposed by a superior architect."
Jane stared at him for a long moment, the sheer audacity of using Martin's stolen power to save his sister's echo clearly hitting her. "Impressive," she whispered. "And deeply ironic."
Kai nodded, acknowledging the compliment with a mock bow, ' oh, wait till you get there. I wonder if the siblings would have a tea party or would they outright try to kill one another again.'
"Fine," Jane said, her expression suddenly turning serious. She looked at Julia and Alicia, "I'll consider your offer. But first... Kai, give me a moment alone with your two companions. There's something I'd like to speak to them about. Woman to woman."
Jane looked between Julia and Alicia with an intensity that made Alicia shift on her feet. "Seriously?" Alicia muttered, looking at Kai for some kind of explanation.
Kai looked just as baffled. He glanced at his girls, then back at the time-traveler. "Since when do you have secrets from the guy offering you a lease on life?"
"Kai," Julia said, her voice was unusually firm which made Kai raise an eyebrow, "Give us a moment, will you?"
Kai threw his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. "Fine, fine you got it sheesh. I'll just go count the blades of grass outside a void where time doesn't exist."
He gave Jane a final, narrowed look of suspicion before blurring out of the cottage. He reappeared just outside the expanse of the Clock Barrens. 'What the hell could she possibly have to say?' he thought, while pacing around. He remembered the way Jane had stared at their chests, at the location of their magical cores with that look of curiosity. 'Is it about the cores? The evolution of their magic perhaps?' He shook his head. 'Whatever, I have bigger fish to fry before I meet the Lady of the East River. I need to calculate exactly how much raw power Heka's fragment is going to kick back into my system.'
He stood there for a few minutes, mentally mapping out his next move. 'I wonder if…'
Suddenly, a scrap of parchment materialized in the air in front of him, igniting in a flash of purple flame. As it crumbled into ash, the words hung in the air for a split second: "You can come in now."
Kai blurred back into the cottage, his irritation ready to boil over. "Okay, so what was so incredibly important that you had to excuse—"
He stopped dead. The main room was empty.
He followed the sound of rhythmic, muffled breathing toward the small bedroom in the back. As he pushed the door open, his immortal soul felt like it had just hit a high-voltage fence.
There, sprawled across Jane's rustic bed, were Julia, Alicia, and the ginger-haired Jane Chatwin. They were dressed in what could only be described as "slutty maid" uniforms covering almost nothing of their deliciously naked forms. The three of them were currently entangled in a heated, breathless three-way make-out session.
Jane looked up over Julia's shoulder, her eyes dark with mischief and her lips swollen. She offered Kai a slow, triumphant wink.
Kai stood frozen in the doorway, his jaw physically hanging open as his brain struggled to process the sheer, unadulterated chaos of the scene. The only thought that managed to form in his mind was a loud, echoing: 'What the actual fuck, I was only gone for a few damn minutes? Oh yeah time doesn't move in here, could have been longer but still, what the fuck?'