We couldn’t see the edges clearly—too far, too dark—but we all knew enough, and we’d seen pictures and drawings in school before to fill in the gaps. I myself had tried to put the Spill on paper from what I knew about it, but I could never get it quite right. This vast space full ofnothing, and my mind didn’t quite comprehend the idea completely. That’s why none of my drawings of it had turned out right.
“Time’s Trousers, that’s the whole world,” Russ breathed.
We were all pressed together, trying to see better, to seemore. For those moments as our eyes roamed on the darkrealm, nobody thought about where we were and what we’d come here to do. Even Silas was completely consumed by the view.
“It’s smaller than I thought, to be honest,” Mimi said. “The realm looks so small from up here.”
“It’s plenty big. It fits us all, doesn’t it?” Anika.
“I think it’sbeautiful.” Erith.
“I think I could run all the way across it within the day.” Seth.
Mimi snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“It looks monstrous to me.” Russ.
“It looks like a living thing.” Levana.
“It looks like amachine,” Cook whispered. “A machine that the Great Clock keeps running.”
“Imagine if it wouldstop.” Anika.
“It did stop, remember? For two weeks,” I said absentmindedly.
“But that was different. If it stopped for real, everything would just end.” Russ.
“Exactly like a machine,” Erith breathed. “Without a source, it just…wouldn’t be.”
“So, what does that make us—gears?” Seth.
“More like players ingames.” Cook. “The Clockrealm is one big,massiveLabyrinth, and our lives are the games inside it.”
Holy Hour, that actually made sense, and…
Something in my chest moved. Shifted. Like a gear clicking into a new position—but it wasn’t quitenew.
“Exactly. So, if the Great Clock were to stop, the games would end.” Levana.
“And the players would no longer be needed.” Seth. “We would all just…perish.”
Something about something about something about something…
“Wow. That thing reallydoes keep us alive.” Anika—as if she was just nowbelievingthe fact for the first time.
I looked up at the gears of the Great Clock over our heads.
Agame.A machine.
Just like the Labyrinth.
For a while there, we stayed in front of the makeshift window, admiring the view, the lights, the endless sky. March held my hand and he was right behind me at all times, a rock I could lean on for anything. It was strange how much I trusted him, when I didn’t know him at all.
Better yet—it was strange how I knew him when I didn’t. I always thought the body and the mind and the heart were separate, that the mind was king, and the heart pulled its strings when it wished. I never quite understood how much strength the body had until now. How much it could give in to the pull, how much it couldknoweven when the heart and mind were in the dark.
A moment later, we felt the magic behind us, buzzing, and we turned to find Master Talik was finally on his feet.
“That tookwaylonger than I expected,” said Cook as we slowly went back. “Why is that, Master Talik?”
