Like Clockwork Origins 5 - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Story by Roxanne

Leeroy wasn’t very good at talking to people. Around strangers, he would always either say nothing at all or talk far too much. One could therefore imagine his surprise when he was approached by three cute young women who wanted his help for something. Him, of all people! However, his feeling of luck soon turned sour when they asked him to sail them to the isle of Furukyo with his sailboat, deep within the land of Weebon. An island infested with pirates…

    Leeroy had short, messy black hair and almost always just wore similar black shirts and a pair of jeans underneath that. He became a sailor mostly to just go out and be alone most of the time. Well, that, and because he had always just been absolutely fascinated by boats. He had put in a LOT of work on his trusty boat, the ‘Black Swan’. Turning her into the best she could be, which perhaps was why the three women had chosen him specifically.

    But to go to the island of Furukyo of all places… Not only would that be highly dangerous for the women, but Leeroy also really feared for his trusty boat! The pirates in that area were highly active, after all! 

However… he couldn’t just resist these three lovely young women, could he?

“How much longer till we get there?” one of the women asked. She had pink hair and wore a fairly typical nun’s outfit, other then the randomly adorned clocks. She had introduced herself as Estella Providence, daughter to Lavini Providence. A name rather well-known since she was one of the High Priestesses of Time, namely the Bishop of the Glass.

    Leeroy looked over his map and then above him to the stars to align himself. They had decided to come at night, figuring the lower visibility and the fact that most pirates would be too drunk by that time. “The uh… we should be seeing the island soon,” he blabbered, getting quite flustered. A part of him had wanted to try and impress Estella by giving an accurate estimate of time. However, he had no real way of making such an estimate, seeing as sailing was quite unpredictable.

    “Then we should probably change our outfits, girls!” Estella called out to the other two, who had just been chatting with each-other about things Leeroy really didn’t understand.

    “Aye aye, captain!” one of them chuckled. She had a rather short physique and there was something quite curious going on with her hair and eyes. One moment, her hair would be green while her eyes were blue, and the next both would be red. Leeroy could have sworn he also saw different combinations every time he looked back her way. Why this was, Leeroy had no idea. Perhaps she just changed her mind about her looks every so often? Or perhaps she was cursed? She had introduced herself as Tilli and she was constantly talking about ‘making darling Kaidyn proud on this mission’.

    “Alright, you first then,” the other chuckled. She was possibly even stranger than Tilli. It was as if someone had gotten two completely different people, tore them in half and just super glued a half from both together. Her left side had white hair, a silver eye and a very pale skin-tone. Most of her skin was covered by some kind of interesting bodysuit and there were pictures of the moon adorning it all. There was even a crescent moon in her hair. Her right side on the other hand had black hair, a golden eye and very much a proper tan. Her arm and leg were mostly uncovered and there were suns adorning this side of her outfit. She must have really liked the sun and the moon for her to incorporate all of these differences so well into her looks! It was just that Leeroy really couldn’t figure out why. She had introduced herself as Julia.

    “S-so uh… where do you uh… I mean why do you… uhm,” Leeroy stumbled over his words. He didn’t really know how to talk to other guys and he certainly didn’t know how to talk to girls!

    “We need to go to the center of the island, where an old shrine to Alinavious is supposed to be,” Julia answered kindly.

    “There’s a Keeper of Time who has been slumbering there since ancient times, and we’re supposed to wake her up,” Estella finished.

    Leeroy just gave them a puzzled look. All of this talk about time and keepers and shrines really flew over his head. Why couldn’t these girls have been nuns of the church of sailboats or something? Then at least he would have been able to talk along.

    “This keeper is… She’s a time elemental like my mom!” Estella added, noticing Leeroy’s confusion.

    “Oh… that makes sense, I guess,” Leeroy said, though now he started questioning how a time elemental had a human for a daughter…

    “How do I look?” Came the voice of Tilli, who re-emerged from the cabin, dressed like a pirate. Well… she looked like what one would describe a pirate to look like to a child. She wore a big, feathered hat on top of a striped shirt and a pair of ripped up trousers.

    “Okay… ditch the hat and you’ll pass,” Julia laughed.

    “What?! But I worked so hard on finding this hat…” Tilli pouted.

    “Where, in an all hallows eve store?” Estella giggled.

    Tilli puffed up her cheeks and threw the hat on the deck, just as her hair changed from blonde to red. “Fiiiine, but I’m wearing it on the way back!”

    “My turn then,” Julia giggled, vanishing into the cabin.

    Seeing the three women interacting with one-another was certainly nice to look at. It actually made Leeroy a little bit jealous. Why couldn’t he talk like they could? Why did everything he tried to say come out as an awkward mess?

    “You think she’ll keep her halves different?” Tilli asked then, interrupting Leeroy’s thoughts. Her hair changed colour again then, becoming green this time.

    “No. We can’t attract any attention on this mission. That’s why they sent us three in the first place. Julia will just have to adjust to acting normal again. That’s probably gonna be hard, considering her devotion to the differences for Zexa Xeza.”

    “I really wonder how she does it…” Tilli pondered aloud.

    Zexa Xeza was another name that Leeroy recognized. They were the twin priestesses of the Dials. That certainly explained a few details about Julia!

    “For that matter, YOU need to stop switching timelines constantly,” Estella commanded.

    “W-what? But but…” Tilli stammered.

    “No buts! Kaidyn isn’t here so there’s no need to be changing constantly,” Estella said.

    “It’s… it’s not like I can control it!” Tilli shouted. When her hair turned red again, Leeroy finally guessed what was going on.

    “It’s tied to your emotions!” he said, feeling rather proud of himself for figuring it out.

    “Yeah, that!” Tilli said.

    Estella rolled her eyes at that and placed her hand on her forehead. “Of course,” she sighed. “Well, can you at least try to control your emotions a bit?”

    Tilli closed her eyes before letting out a soft breath. It worked wonders it seemed as her hair turned blonde again. “I will try my best,” she said calmly.

    “Excellent,” Estella cheered, just as Julia left the cabin again.

    “Arrrr!” she shouted. She too now wore some old sailor’s clothes. It actually didn’t look all that bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that her hair and eye colours were still missmatched, and she still wore a necklace with a golden sun and a silver crescent moon hanging from them.

    “Hmmm… ah, I know!” Estella said. She then dug into the pile of extra clothes that they had brought along for the trip just in case and got out an old shirt. She then just ripped the thing apart before tying the rags around Julia’s head, turning it into a makeshift bandana that covered her hair. Then she got out an eyepatch and placed it over one of Julia’s eyes.

    “Looks good!” Tilli cheered, to which Estella nodded.

    “Thanks, Stell. Your turn then,” Julia grinned.

    When Estella was in the cabin, Tilli turned to Julia and held a hand over her mouth, yet she spoke loud enough for Leeroy to still hear her. “Has she always been this bossy?” she asked.

    Julia laughed then. “It’s what you get when you’re the daughter of a high priestess. Her other mom, Cassiopeia, says raising her was quite the handful,” she grinned as she temporarily removed her eyepatch.

    “I heard that!” came Estella’s voice from inside the cabin.

    “I know you did,” Julia chuckled. “In all seriousness though. She’s mostly trying to prove herself to her mothers. Neither of them really wanted her to go on this mission out of worry but everybody else agreed she should go. That’s why she wants this mission to go perfectly… and why she’s kinda acting like Cassie right now.”

    “Huh… like mother, like daughter, I guess,” Tilli giggled. “I guess you two must go back quite a bit.”

    “We were the only humans at the temple for quite a while until you showed up. So we’ve been hanging out every now and then to talk about… well… human things,” Julia laughed.

    “Is that why they sent you three?” Leeroy asked then. “Because you’re the only humans?”

    Julia nodded. “You can try and disguise the priestesses all you want, but they’ll still just attract too much attention,” she explained.

    “Ah… true,” Leeroy nodded as he recounted the high priestesses. Sure, they all had humanoid bodies but none of them were human. From a dryad to a brass clockwork ballerina, each of them really stood out.

    “How’s this?” Came Estella’s voice as she left the cabin. She now wore a similar outfit to that of her companions. She had tied her hair into a pony-tail and it appeared that she still had at least one clock on her as a necklace. When all three gave her a thumbs up, she grinned.

    That’s when Leeroy noticed something rising over the horizon. It was mostly dark, but a large section of it was lit up. They had almost reached their destination.

Docking proved easier than Leeroy had anticipated. Indeed, most of the dockworkers were passed out drunks, and those that did still linger cared little for a small sailboat such as theirs. Either that, or, as Leeroy feared, they were planning on simply stealing his boat. Of course, he left behind some magical protections, but it was still worrying to leave ‘The Black Swan’ behind like this. He just hoped and prayed that everything would be alright in the end.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the sounds of partying could be heard all over town. The smell of fish and rum permeated the air here. Something that apparently got to be a bit much for Tilli as she wanted to just cover her nose, only for Estella to tell her to cut it out. The streets weren’t exactly the cleanest and most of the buildings were somewhat shoddy at best. Some of them had broken windows while others had giant holes in the roof. At one point, the group rounded a corner just as a guy fell right through a window, only for him to get back up and jump right back in. Apparently there was a bar brawl going on in there.

Most of the pirates were too drunk to care much about other people passing through. A fair amount, though, still gave them just a bit more than a passing glance. Leeroy wasn’t surprised, given that his companions were all women, even through their disguises.

“I’ll never complain about down-town Stepolis again…” Tilli whined.

“Hush,” Estella hissed as a particularly big and burly pirate passed the group. He seemed to eye their group for just a moment longer but then he just went about his way again.

“Where do we even go from here?” Tilli asked, looking around.

“If we uh… just keep on… we’ll just have to walk away from the sea,” Leeroy stammered.

Estella nodded. “So this way,” she pointed. 

The four were about to start walking again when suddenly… Leeroy felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw that it was the big burly man from before. “You gonna share that?” he asked, pointing at the three women.

Leeroy got incredibly pale, Estella looked absolutely appalled and Tilli looked visibly scared. Her hair seemed to have turned purple as a result. Julia on the other hand looked incredibly furious. “Say that again!” she yelled at him.

The big burly man grinned then, showing off his terrible dental hygiene, and leaned over right in Julia’s face. “I said… is this wimpy excuse of a man going to share you three or not?” he said, fairly loudly so that other people in the street could hear him.

Julia’s visible eye twitched. She then clenched her fist and got ready to punch.

“Julia, no!” Estella called out but it was too late. Her companion gave the man such a strong punch in the face that he fell over onto the ground and he was out like a light.

Leeroy looked from the man to Julia, who was wiping some grime off her fist. Tilli looked mortified while Estella just glared at Julia. For a moment, the whole street was silent, until everybody burst out into loud cheering and laughter. This actually surprised all four of them. Julia just grinned and bowed to the audience while Tilli awkwardly helped Leeroy up. Then, everybody just moved on with their lives again, leaving the man just lying there.

“T-t-thanks…” Leeroy muttered. It was a good thing Julia was there to save the day alright. It kind of made him wonder what he was even doing here in the first place. He could have just stayed on his boat. Then again, he would have been there all alone if that were the case.

“That was reckless of you!” Estella hissed at Julia.

“I wasn’t exactly gonna let that go unpunished, was I?” Julia replied, crossing her arms.

“We’re lucky everybody thought it was funny!” Estella argued. “If they hadn’t we may have had to fight our way through and somebody might have gotten hurt and then my moms are NEVER letting me go on a mission like this again…” She sighed then, looking to the ground.

That’s when Julia placed a hand on Estella’s shoulder. “Hey, cut it out, okay?” she smiled. “We’re going to find this keeper and your moms are gonna be proud of you.”

“... You really think so?” Estella asked.

Julia nodded. “Zexa Xeza was crazy worried about me, but I know they’ll love it when I tell them of this guy,” she chuckled. “Point is… they’re never really going to stop worrying about you, and that’s a good thing. It shows that they care. All you gotta do is just be yourself and show that you can do this in your own Estella way.”

Estella gave a meek smile then. “Thanks… and honestly, that was really awesome,” she admitted.

As the two were having a heart to heart, Leeroy had started looking over the man. “Did… did you kill him?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh! Nah, he should wake up with a bad headache after an hour,” Julia grinned. Knowing that these people were from the temple of time, Leeroy figured that that hour estimate was probably very accurate.

“Uhm…” Tilli interrupted then. “Can we finally move on again? This city is giving me the willies…”

Estella nodded, suddenly looking a whole lot more determined and in control than before. “You’re absolutely right! Let’s go, team human!”

Getting through the rest of the city was actually quite uneventful. Estella just strutted through the city as if she owned the place, and it appeared that this actually demanded quite a lot of respect from the pirates. Julia’s talk must have done wonders to the girl’s self esteem. Eventually, the group finally reached the edge of the forest. A few people gave the group some odd looks as they left the city behind. They were probably just curious about their direction, Leeroy figured.

    “Whoah, it’s so dark here…” Tilli said. Even though the party had lit up a torch, it was still pretty hard to see anything in here.

    “The pirates must not like leaving their city all that much,” Julia surmised as she removed her eyepatch.

    Leeroy didn’t really blame the pirates. After all, the forest looked pretty creepy. The trees did not look comforting, there was an eerie silence and though there was a path here, it didn’t look like anyone had been here in years. It really gave him the creeps, and it seemed that that was the case for the others too. As such, he decided to keep the conversation going to distract from the forest. “So… uh… Who is this keeper anyway?”

    “She’s the Keeper of Bells. She is one of the original five keepers of time. When our goddess died, the five keepers at the time went into a deep slumber in order to prevent time from desynchronizing. Her shrine is supposed to be on this island.” Julia explained.

    “But… if they went to sleep to prevent a temporal disaster, then… why are they waking up now?” Leeroy asked.

    “Because of the new keepers,” Tilli smiled. “With the new keepers present, they can maintain the flow of time without having to stretch themselves super thin and all that.”

    “Indeed. And also, my mother has foreseen an event that will take place soon. An event for which we will be needing all ten keepers,” Estella added.

    “Ten?” Leeroy tilted his head. Counting them all up, he was certain there were only eight keepers, if one were to count Zexa Xeza as one. This keeper of bells would of course make the ninth but then there was still one missing...

    “We… currently don’t know yet where or even who the fifth new keeper is,” Estella sighed.

    “We only know what her DLC is. It’s a…” Julia said, but she was interrupted by Tilli.

    “Look! It’s the shrine!” she shouted.

    “Ah, excellent!” Estella cheered. 

However, what they saw wasn’t exactly worthy of cheering. Before them stood a pretty big, distinctly eastern pagoda with five floors. Leeroy guessed that the only reason they hadn’t seen it yet from the sea was because of the darkness of night. From what Leeroy could see, there were clocks hanging on all four sides on the third story. There were several bells hanging from each roof corner, though some had fallen off already. There was also a huge belfry on the fifth floor, but it was too dark to spot the bells. Some of the roof tiles had fallen down and there was a rusty, ancient spire lying next to the pagoda. Leeroy guessed that it had probably fallen from the very top of the pagoda. Black and red were the colours used most it seemed. The place must have looked quite impressive back in the day when it was still visited daily but now…

“You know… when they said ‘keeper of bells’, I didn’t expect her shrine to look this… ominous,” Tilli whined. Indeed, this place didn’t look all that cheery, and that wasn’t just because of the worn-down status of the whole thing. There were two large statues of rather scary-looking lions at the front. There were also several wooden carvings of dragons all over the pagoda. A thousand years of abandonment didn’t really do their appearance much justice.

“Yeah…” Julia nodded, eyeing some of the dragons.

“Hmmm… I guess we should check the area first,” Estella said. Both her and Julia then looked to Tilli whose hair by now had turned an even deeper shade of purple.

It wasn’t until a few moments later when Tilli realized what was going on. “O-oh!... fi-fine…” she whined. She then stepped forwards. She put on her bravest face, which seemed to turn her hair red this time, before enveloping herself into an aura of light and vanishing from sight. Looking around, leeroy could see that she had teleported herself to the first floor balcony. Moments later, she was on the second floor. And then on the other side. And again. And again! Leeroy had never seen someone teleport this effortlessly before. Teleportation spells were usually quite hard to pull off after all.

“Do we even know how to wake her up?” Julia asked.

“Ehehehehe… not really, no,” Estella admitted. “BUT! I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

“Then… how did the others wake up?” Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, the others just kinda… did. My mom showed up at Ysera’s shrine just as she awoke. Then my mom and Bridget also just… showed up right as Hestia awoke. Aria was there when Feline awoke and Bridget and Hestia together were there to wake Christine up. As far as I know, they all just woke up by themselves. That or maybe we just… have to ring a bell or something,” Estella explained.

Just then, Tilli returned to stand next to them to give her own two cents. “But they were are all time elementals. We’re only humans! Would our connection to time be enough?” she asked.

“I’m sure it will! There’s three of us after all,” Estella cheered, though she didn’t seem as certain about it to Leeroy.

“I hope you’re right, then!” Tilli said before just blinking elsewhere again.

“And what if we can’t wake her up?” Julia asked.

“Then… one of the keepers will have to come here after all, but that’s just far too risky, what with the pirates,” Estella sighed.

“All clear,” Tilli said smiling upon her return. Her hair was blonde again and only now did the light that surrounded her extinguish again.

“So… we go inside now?” Leeroy asked, not exactly looking forward to that.

“We’ll have to, yes,” Estella nodded as she walked up to the front door. It was a huge set of wooden doors with a clock’s face carved into it. It also had a knocker on both doors, but it was highly unlikely that they would be answered. Opening the doors, however, looked like it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Let me at it,” Julia grinned. She then slammed her fist into her other hand before stretching her fingers. Finally, she grabbed a hold of one of the doors and just started pulling with all her might. It was incredible to see, but she actually caused the door to budge and eventually open up as well. Leeroy knew that she was strong judging by her muscles and her earlier run-in with the pirates, but THIS strong?

As the doors opened, the group got their first look at the inside of the shrine… and it somehow looked even more solemn on the inside than out. In the torch-light, Leeroy could make out a huge worn-down shrine on the far wall that had been all but destroyed by a fallen-over pillar. The floor was just an absolute mess of things that had fallen down from the upper floors. There was a spiralling staircase leading up in the middle, and they could see that the upper floors didn’t fare much better. There were rotting benches and vague symbols could be seen on the walls. Dust and cobwebs had claimed most of the room.

“How welcoming…” Estella sighed.

Tilli was the first to take a few careful steps inside. “Helloooooo? Is anybody here?” she called out. Her voice echoed throughout the entire tower, but other than that, she was met with silence.

“Keeper of bells?! We come from the new church of time! We’ve come to wake you up!” Estella called out.

Nothing.

“We’ll have to search,” Julia said, joining the two while clapping some dust off her hands.

Leeroy, however, was still outside. How could the girls all have just walked in like that without preparing? There could have been a trap or something! Sighing, he just carefully joined them inside.

“Guess we’re going up to the belfry?” Tilli proposed.

“That staircase doesn’t really look all that stable anymore…” Leeroy moaned, eyeing the old wooden steps.

“But it’s the only way up,” Estella argued, already approaching the stairwell.

Leeroy groaned but he decided to act brave this time. After all, if he goes up the stairs first, then it’ll be over sooner. As such, he placed his foot on the first step. It felt sturdy enough alright. The second step on the other hand was a lot softer, and things didn’t really improve from there…

“Are you sure about this, Estella? Tilli asked as she too took her first few steps on the staircase.

“Not all of us can teleport around, Tilli. Some of us have to walk,” Julia chuckled, following suit.

Things seemed to be going alright. That is until Leeroy got about halfway up the stairs, when he felt the next step actually move as he placed his foot on it. Out of panic, he yanked his foot back and stepped on the previous step, but this only caused this step to also start shifting around. “We gotta get off this thing!” he shouted.

“What?!” The three women cried out in unison as they too now noticed the splintering wood.

Leeroy wanted to go back down, but since his way was still blocked by his companions, the only way he could go was up. As such, he got into a sprint and barged up the stairs as fast as possible. Some of the steps held while others simply fell out the moment he left it. It didn’t matter, he had to get up as fast as possible before the whole staircase came down! When he finally reached the second floor, he let out a sigh of relief. Looking around himself though, he saw that he was the only one who had made it up. Panic set in but it was quickly relieved again when he saw them on the ground floor. “Are you okay?!” he called out to them.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Tilli cried out in return.

“Tilli got hit by a stray plank!” Estella replied. It appeared that she was using magic on Tilli’s leg.

“Stell’s gonna have to heal her before we move on,” Julia called out.

“And… w-what about me?” Leeroy asked.

“Are you hurt?” Julia asked.

“No… I guess not,” Leeroy replied as he checked himself over.

“Well then… just stay there and we’ll think of a way to get you down when Stell’s done,” Julia said.

“Great…” Leeroy muttered to himself. He just sighed and looked around at his new surroundings. If anything, this place actually looked quite nice. Unlike the ground floor it seemed to have withstood the test of time surprisingly well. It was quite open here and he got a very good view of the whole island from up here. There were a few old bells lying around here and there that had obviously fallen down from the beams up above. There were bronze bells, silver bells and even golden bells. None of it was as impressive as the absolutely gigantic bell that hung in the middle. It looked like it was made out of iron. How loud it must sound when rung…

Possibly even more intriguing than the iron bell though was the tiny silver bell lying on a pedestal underneath it. It was quite a pretty little thing alright, and Leeroy found himself carefully approaching it to take a better look at it. Everything in the room, while impressive looking, was also mostly covered in dust. This small bell though was completely unblemished. There was writing on it, but the symbols looked alien to him.

“Leeroy?!” came Estella’s voice from behind him. 

He had been so caught up with the pretty silver bell that he had almost forgotten where exactly he was. Thus he walked back to the hole in the ground where the staircase was. “Yes?” he called down.

“What do you see up there?” she asked. It seemed that she was still in the process of healing Tilli who, by the way, looked like she was being way too overly dramatic about her wound.

“Well… uh… bells. Lots of bells,” Leeroy replied.

“Any sign of the keeper?” Julia asked.

“No… There’s no-one here,” Leeroy said.

The women all looked at each-other for a moment then. “Tilli will come up with you shortly. We’ll think of something then,” Estella said. 

Leeroy nodded at them before moving back to look at the pretty silver bell again. It was quite captivating to look at alright. A part of him was reminded of his first time seeing a sailboat or his first time out at sea on his own. He really wanted to hear what it sounded like. Well… seeing as his companions were still busy, there probably wasn’t any harm in ringing it, right? It was so small after all. They probably wouldn’t even really hear it.

He had made up his mind. Carefully, he picked up the small bell. It felt oddly cold to the touch. As if it was a small clump of ice. He hesitated for a short moment. This thing was probably magical. Maybe he shouldn’t ring it… but he simply couldn’t resist it. Thus he gave the trinket the tiniest of swings.

… tinkle…

The chime that followed sounded so clear and wonderful. It was simply divine! Oh how beautifully it chimed and sang its celestial tune. His favourite sounds of the sea simply could not compare at all. He didn’t even really realize the silly smile he had on his face as he listened to it.

Leeroy rang it a second time, shaking it a bit more, and it sounded even better! It was strange. It was just one tiny bell but it was as if this bell had so much to say. It sang of merry times. It told of the first snowfall of the winter times. It chimed along the sound of the creaking ice over a lake. Even amidst a pirate-infested island far away from his sailboat, it was nice, cheerful, and calming. He soon realized how soft it made him feel. 

He couldn’t contain himself, he had to ring it a third time! 

… tinkle…

… ting…

As he rung it again, he heard something that he didn’t expect. Instead of just the soft chime of the silver bell, a new sound joined into the mix. He jumped and quickly looked around to see where it had come from, only to find that it was actually one of the golden bells hanging from the ceiling. It seemed to have started swinging… for some reason. Sure, there was a bit of a breeze up in the belfry, but it definitely shouldn’t be enough to make one of these heavy bells start swinging, right? And yet here it was, softly ringing on its own. It wasn’t unpleasant to listen to though. In fact, it sounded very beautiful. Unlike the melodious chiming of the small silver bell, this bell sounded louder. It sounded… happy.

Soon another bell joined its companion. And another… and another! Had Leeroy’s ringing of the silver bell started this? If so, this should probably really worry him… and yet he wasn’t. The harmony of this happy jingling and gleeful swelling just lifted his mood up so much. Oh how joyfully they sang their song. All of his worries seem to just wash off him. The only thing that still lingered was whether the girls would be angry with him once they get up for ringing these sacred bells. Ah, but that would be a problem for future Leeroy, he thought to himself. For now he felt as happy as the bells themselves.

That’s when something seemed… off. His hair was hanging over his eyes. He had been brushing it aside a few times as he listened to the song of the bells but only now did he realize how strange this was. He had always kept his hair short. How was it now hanging over his eyes? As he held up his hair, he also noticed something off about his hand. It seemed smaller, and a lot softer too. What was going on?

“Oh no…” he gasped to himself. While the bells still jingled and swelled, he started frantically inspecting his own body. He had become quite a bit shorter from his usual self judging by the fact that his clothes had started sagging quite a bit. His skin felt so much softer than usual and he could feel a numb pain in his chest. This definitely wasn’t good…

Ting, ting

Bing, bong!

It was as if the bells had heard his worries then, for their happy song actually changed as well. As more and more bronze bells joined in on the chorus, their ringing actually became more urgent. Their clamor and clangor swelled up more and more as Leeroy became increasingly worried about his body. He wasn’t sure whether the bells were reacting to him, or whether he was reacting to the bells.

The numb pain on his chest became stronger as it started pushing out into two lumps. With disbelief he stared as two breasts formed on his shirt. He gasped as he physically felt his manhood retreating back into his body. He reached for it, but to no avail, as it soon formed a rather feminine slit instead. This wasn’t happening…

And all the while, the bells howled. A cacophony of sound that swelled and clanged. Their clamor must have been audible throughout the entire island! The girls downstairs must be hearing it at least. Surely they will come up soon to rescue him from all of this, right? … Right?

“E-Este-What?!” he tried calling out to them, only to realize that his voice sounded so much higher in pitch. His hair was now reaching down beyond his shoulders even and his shirt was now more like a tent while his pants had already fallen down his legs. Thankfully, he seemed to have stopped shrinking now, but the changes sure weren’t stopping. His, or more accurately her shoulders slimmed down while her facial features became even softer. Any hairs on her body other than on top of her head simply vanished into thin air. As the bells howled and clanged, she caught her reflection into some of them, and she was shocked by what she saw. Leeroy had turned into a Weebonese girl! Her short physique, the shape of her eyes, her new hairstyle, it was all very much like any far eastern woman!

The bells clamor and clangor didn’t show any signs of stopping. These brazen bells weren’t just growing more urgent, they were seething with terror. As if to send a warning. As if they howled of a forceful fire, or of a terrible hurricane. Oh how turbulent they howled and growled.

Leeroy found herself curling up in a ball, the silver bell tightly clutched in her hand. She placed her arms over her head, trying desperately to cover herself from the cacophony, but it was useless. The bells rang and rang, louder and louder.

“Make it stop…” she whimpered softly, but the bells rang.

“Make it stop.” she said a little louder, but the bells howled.

“MAKE IT STOP!” she yelled… and so did the bells finally stop. The belfry went as silent as it had been before. Her ears were still ringing slightly, but other than that, there was nothing. Opening her eyes, she looked around. The bells were hanging still, as if they hadn’t even moved to begin with. Brushing her hair to the side, she slowly stood up again, looking around in confusion. Had all of this just been an illusion? Well, no, that certainly wasn’t the case, for she was still a woman. Yet the girls downstairs weren’t calling out to her.

“At… least it stopped,” she sighed. She was about to finally step away from the altar then when…

… GOOOONNNGGGGG!!!!

An overwhelmingly loud clash of iron on iron sent the newly transformed girl buckling down and dropping to the ground. She screamed out from the deafening gong and tried desperately to crawl away, only for another eardrum shattering gong to howl out. The large iron bell had started singing its own tune. It was so loud that it too much to handle…

    Or was it? As it tolled a third time, as loud as before… Leeroy actually thought that she heard something. It wasn’t just an incredibly loud noise. No. It was like the bells from before. The silver bell sounded merry. The golden bells sounded joyful. The bronze bells sounded turbulent. And now… this iron bell sounded solemn. It was as if it mourned. As if its monody told a tale of solitude and sadness.

    By the fourth gong, loud as it was, Leeroy actually stopped covering her ears. By the fifth toll, she looked back up again. By the sixth cry, she found herself standing up again. The tolling of the iron bell was louder than any sound she’d ever heard, but it no longer seemed to faze her.

    “You’re… sad,” Leeroy said, surprising herself even on the seventh gong. Why was she speaking to a bell? It was a bell. A thing. And yet its song was filled with so much feeling and emotion.

    “You’re alone?” she asked, just as it gonged its eight toll.

    “You’re missing someone,” Leeroy deduced calmly on the ninth gong. The bell must be missing the keeper of bells after all.

    “Where is she though?” she asked herself on the tenth toll. Wasn’t she supposed to be asleep right here?

    “I know where she is…” she said then as the eleventh gong howled out across the island. It seemed so obvious to her now.

    “I’m right here,” she said on the twelfth toll before outstretching her hand and touching the bell’s massive clapper, instantly causing the bell to become still once more. She smiled at it, and it truly felt like she was reuniting with an old friend.

And then the bell dropped.

She closed her eyes calmly. She wasn’t scared as the bell fell right over her, trapping her within. Yet it never touched the floor. Rather, it hovered over her before shrinking down somewhat. The top of the bell opened up, as well as two holes on the side. Two appendages seemed to grow out of these two holes. The outside of the bell seemed to take on a more fabric-y look while the inside remained iron. Soon, the whole bell looked more like a silky gothic dress than anything else. A gothic dress that wrapped itself around her body and fit her perfectly. The inside was still very much a bell alright, and the iron felt rather cold around her body, yet she wasn’t bothered by it. Not at all. It felt comforting. It felt right.

    As her skin started taking on a pale complexion, more bells came down from the ceiling. Bronze, silver, golden, all of them came down. Some bells spiralled around her sleeves while others attached themselves to the hem of her skirt. Two silver bells reached into her hair and tied it up into two ponytails, where they wrapped themselves around the ties. Two bronze bells reached for the very end of her sleeves and attached themselves, merging to form cone shapes that were still very much functioning bells. Lastly, the silver bell that had started it all. She had held onto it throughout the entire ordeal, and now it too was glowing. It hovered out of her hand and rested right over her neck, where it formed a ribbon.

    As she looked down at all of this happening, she didn’t know what to feel. As her skin now turned a pristine white, memories of her sailboat were becoming incredibly hard to remember, while new memories entered her head. 

But… they weren’t new memories, where they? These were old memories. Very old memories. As her shoes morphed into knee-high boots, she remembered. She remembered the bells. Bells ringing to introduce a new day. Bells singing to end another hour. The bells that could twinkle. The bells that could ring. The bells that could howl. The bells that could sing. The bells. Her bells. She was their keeper after all. She was tied to them and they were tied to her. After all…

She was time.

While black eyeshadow applied itself to her eyes, she realized this truth about herself once more. Of course. She was the Keeper of bells. She was Time. She served the goddess Alinavious. And she was… awake? Why was she awake? It was quite the conundrum alright.

    “Whoah!” came a sudden voice from behind her. Looking over, the Keeper saw a rather short girl, barely taller than herself with blue hair.

    Calmly, the keeper turned around to look this strange girl over, chiming a few of her silver bells in the process.

    “Are… you the keeper of bells?” the girl asked.

    The keeper nodded wordlessly, uncertain yet about whether the girl was friend or foe.

    Just then, the girl’s hair turned blonde as she smiled broadly. “Girls, I found her!” she called out.

    “Wait, really?!” “See, I told you it would work, Tilli!” came two more voices from two unseen women.

    “Who… are you?” the keeper asked. Though her voice was quite high pitched, it also sounded quite raspy. She sounded quite neutral too. After all, she had never really been all that good at expressing her emotions. The bells did that for her.

    “I’m Tilli,” the girl smiled. “My two friends down there would be joining us here but uh… well, we kinda broke the stairs trying to come up here. Sorry about that.”

    “I… see,” the keeper said, tilting her head. “And you were looking for me?”

    “Oh yes! But uh… let’s try and go down first. Hold on to me. I can teleport us down but… well it takes a lot out of me, so we gotta get it right in one go.”

    “Ah… right. I guess that would make talking easier.” the keeper said. Confused as she was, she just did as she was asked. She walked off her platform and approached this ‘Tilli’ person. The bells around her body jingled and tinkled as she walked. It was definitely something that she had missed after a thousand years of sleep. Carefully, she held the girl’s outstretched hand, just as the girl started glowing. It was a dim glow at first, but it grew out brighter and brighter. Soon, the keeper had to close her eyes and when she opened them again, she was no longer up in the belfry alright. Instead, she was down in the main hall of her pagoda. Or… what’s left of it at least. Looking around, there was so much rubble and dust everywhere. The Chronan texts on the doorway were barely visible. The benches had mostly broken down from the collapsed staircase and pillars. It was truly a sight for sore eyes. It was to be expected of course but still…

    “Whoa… it really is her,” came a female voice. Looking over, she saw the two other women she had heard earlier. A pink-haired woman and a woman whose hair was both black and white.

    “Greetings!” the pink-haired woman spoke up. “My name is Estella and this here is Julia. It is an honour to meet you!”

    The keeper gave them a silent, expressionless curtsy in return.

    “So… what’s your name?” Julia asked.

    Her name… she knew her own name of course, even if she hadn’t used or heard it in a very long time. “I’m Lorelei,” she answered.

    “Pretty…” she heard Estella mutter under her breath.

    “So why have you awoken me? And how do you know who I am? I didn’t think I’d be all that famous 1044 years after I went to sleep,” Lorelei pondered out loud, her voice as monotone as ever.

    “Oh, right! You see, we are representatives of the new church of time. We have been sent by your sisters to wake you up,” Estella explained.

    “My sisters…” Lorelei repeated, looking down to the ground as her iron bell tolled solemnly. She had missed them a great deal alright.

    “Ysera, Hestia, Feline and Christine, yes. You’re the last to wake up. At least… from you original five keepers,” Julia smiled.

    This caused Lorelei to look up again. If they had all awoken before her, that meant that she would see them again soon. Realizing this, two of her golden bells sang happily. Yet throughout it all, her face remained neutral. “Original… you mean to tell me there are more keepers of time now?”

    “Yeah! There’s four new keepers and we’re looking for number five!” Tilli cheered.

    “That’s… unexpected…” Lorelei mused. If all of this was true, then the church of time had indeed been resurrected, and bigger than ever before! Yet… she knew the sad truth that their goddess was still not there. She could not feel her presence after all. She stepped towards the grand doors then, the iron bell of her dress tolling softly. “Then let us get back to them.”

    “Ah… about that,” Estella started, nervously touching her index fingers, “getting off Furukyo is going to be a bit of an issue.”

    “Furukyo?” Lorelei asked. That was definitely not the name of her island. Her island was called Nakakyo back in the day. “What happened?”

    “The island’s kiiiinda infested with pirates,” Julia explained.

    Lorelei’s eyes widened somewhat. “What? But this was the seat of the royal family of Nipshon.” She moved her hands to make the bronze bell clang in alarm then. If it weren’t for them, she would appear incredibly nonchalant and uncaring about the whole matter. Something that was of course not true at all.

    “Well, it isn’t anymore, I’m afraid,” Tilli said.

    Lorelei looked to the ground again. “What has become of my homeland?” she asked. She almost didn’t want to hear the answer.

    “Oh, don’t worry. The land is mostly fine. It has just had to move its capital city elsewhere. Also… the counties called Weebon now,” Julia said.

    “I… see,” Lorelei said. This calmed her down somewhat alright, but it was still sad to see this happening.

    “This island must have meant a lot to you,” Estella said.

    Lorelei sighed as more memories of the past returned to her. She remembered the war between Nipshon and Stepolis. A war that lasted until the church of time stepped in to start peace negotiations. Lorelei herself ended up joining the church and she herself became a symbol for peace, even if she had to give up her humanity for it. Not that she regretted that. On the contrary. “More than a lot… I was her princess at one point,” she explained.

    All three women gasped at that. “Y-you were a princess?!” they asked in unison.

    “I… guess I should have said that sooner. I should have realized that it’s not all that common to be a princess,” Lorelei replied, ringing a few of her bronze bells nervously.

“You can say that again,” Estella laughed. “But… what’s with the outfit then? That looks kinda western.”

“Oh… I thought that if I was going to be a symbol of peace between our nations, I would wear some of Stepolis fashion. Ysera and the others showed me this, and I instantly fell in love, though my father didn’t like it very much. In hindsight, maybe it was a bit rude of me to start wearing it,” Lorelei explained.

“I think it suits you!” Tilli smiled.

“I… thanks,” Lorelei said, ringing a silver bell gratefully. “Anyway, how do we get off the island then?”

    “Well, we have a plan for that,” Julia grinned as she got out what looked like a heart-shaped locket with a fiery emblem on it. When she opened it, it started glowing quite brightly as sparks flew out of the trinket. After only a few moments, a new woman stood before them. At least, she looked like a woman. In actuality, this was a fire elemental.

    “... and then I sent them such a big ball of fire that… huh?” the elemental looked around herself curiously, eyeing Lorelei for a moment. “You’re not Dalia…”

    “Hello there, Lucia?” Julia grinned. “Remember me?”

    The elemental looked around at the woman who had summoned her. “You! I remember you… you and those twins of yours!” She certainly didn’t look all that pleased.

    “I have several questions…” Lorelei frowned, holding up a finger.

    “Just… go with it,” Estella replied softly. “Julia, Zexa, and Xeza, uh… their one of the new keepers. Anyways they explored a dungeon and the treasure they found was that locket which can summon a fire elemental.”

    “So what do you want, huh? Scared of the dark and wanted a light?” Lucia teased.

    “Hardly. How would you like to pretend to be a dragon?” Julia grinned.

    Lucia held up her finger then, about to tease some more when she realized what Julia had said. “Come again?”

    “A dragon. We need you to create a diversion while we sneak around to get to our boat,” Julia explained.

    The fire elemental placed a hand on her chin then, thinking about it. “It would certainly be a real blast… and a flaming good story for Dalia…” she mused to herself. “Okay, I’ll do it! Just in between though, who am I distracting exactly?”

    “Pirates, and lots of them,” Estella explained.

    Lucia gave a haughty laugh at that. “I’ll fire up a dragon so big, those rum-drinkers won’t know what hit them!”

    “Excellent! Thank you, Lucia,” Julia cheered.

    “As for us, we should get ready to start sneaking!” Tilli smiled.

    “I’m not exactly good at sneaking,” Lorelei said before wiggling her own body and beginning a small chorus of bells.

    “Right… meaning Lucia will have to pull out all the stops for her diversion,” Estella said.

    “Pshaw! Don’t get your cinders in a fit. You just get yourselves to your boat as fast as possible and I’ll see ya again once you’re out,” Lucia grinned.

    Lorelei looked at the fire elemental. Did she really have to make such horribly bad puns all the time? No wonder elementals always got such a bad rep. Then again, Lorelei herself had also made some bad jokes to herself in the past. She just… wasn’t very good at telling them to others.

    “Well, if everyoLeeroy wasn’t very good at talking to people. Around strangers, he would always either say nothing at all or talk far too much. One could therefore imagine his surprise when he was approached by three cute young women who wanted his help for something. Him, of all people! However, his feeling of luck soon turned sour when they asked him to sail them to the isle of Furukyo with his sailboat, deep within the land of Weebon. An island infested with pirates…

Leeroy had short, messy black hair and almost always just wore similar black shirts and a pair of jeans underneath that. He became a sailor mostly to just go out and be alone most of the time. Well, that, and because he had always just been absolutely fascinated by boats. He had put in a LOT of work on his trusty boat, the ‘Black Swan’. Turning her into the best she could be, which perhaps was why the three women had chosen him specifically.

But to go to the island of Furukyo of all places… Not only would that be highly dangerous for the women, but Leeroy also really feared for his trusty boat! The pirates in that area were highly active, after all!

However… he couldn’t just resist these three lovely young women, could he?

“How much longer till we get there?” one of the women asked. She had pink hair and wore a fairly typical nun’s outfit, other then the randomly adorned clocks. She had introduced herself as Estella Providence, daughter to Lavini Providence. A name rather well-known since she was one of the High Priestesses of Time, namely the Bishop of the Glass.

Leeroy looked over his map and then above him to the stars to align himself. They had decided to come at night, figuring the lower visibility and the fact that most pirates would be too drunk by that time. “The uh… we should be seeing the island soon,” he blabbered, getting quite flustered. A part of him had wanted to try and impress Estella by giving an accurate estimate of time. However, he had no real way of making such an estimate, seeing as sailing was quite unpredictable.

“Then we should probably change our outfits, girls!” Estella called out to the other two, who had just been chatting with each-other about things Leeroy really didn’t understand.

“Aye aye, captain!” one of them chuckled. She had a rather short physique and there was something quite curious going on with her hair and eyes. One moment, her hair would be green while her eyes were blue, and the next both would be red. Leeroy could have sworn he also saw different combinations every time he looked back her way. Why this was, Leeroy had no idea. Perhaps she just changed her mind about her looks every so often? Or perhaps she was cursed? She had introduced herself as Tilli and she was constantly talking about ‘making darling Kaidyn proud on this mission’.

“Alright, you first then,” the other chuckled. She was possibly even stranger than Tilli. It was as if someone had gotten two completely different people, tore them in half and just super glued a half from both together. Her left side had white hair, a silver eye and a very pale skin-tone. Most of her skin was covered by some kind of interesting bodysuit and there were pictures of the moon adorning it all. There was even a crescent moon in her hair. Her right side on the other hand had black hair, a golden eye and very much a proper tan. Her arm and leg were mostly uncovered and there were suns adorning this side of her outfit. She must have really liked the sun and the moon for her to incorporate all of these differences so well into her looks! It was just that Leeroy really couldn’t figure out why. She had introduced herself as Julia.

“S-so uh… where do you uh… I mean why do you… uhm,” Leeroy stumbled over his words. He didn’t really know how to talk to other guys and he certainly didn’t know how to talk to girls!

“We need to go to the center of the island, where an old shrine to Alinavious is supposed to be,” Julia answered kindly.

“There’s a Keeper of Time who has been slumbering there since ancient times, and we’re supposed to wake her up,” Estella finished.

Leeroy just gave them a puzzled look. All of this talk about time and keepers and shrines really flew over his head. Why couldn’t these girls have been nuns of the church of sailboats or something? Then at least he would have been able to talk along.

“This keeper is… She’s a time elemental like my mom!” Estella added, noticing Leeroy’s confusion.

“Oh… that makes sense, I guess,” Leeroy said, though now he started questioning how a time elemental had a human for a daughter…

“How do I look?” Came the voice of Tilli, who re-emerged from the cabin, dressed like a pirate. Well… she looked like what one would describe a pirate to look like to a child. She wore a big, feathered hat on top of a striped shirt and a pair of ripped up trousers.

“Okay… ditch the hat and you’ll pass,” Julia laughed.

“What?! But I worked so hard on finding this hat…” Tilli pouted.

“Where, in an all hallows eve store?” Estella giggled.

Tilli puffed up her cheeks and threw the hat on the deck, just as her hair changed from blonde to red. “Fiiiine, but I’m wearing it on the way back!”

“My turn then,” Julia giggled, vanishing into the cabin.

Seeing the three women interacting with one-another was certainly nice to look at. It actually made Leeroy a little bit jealous. Why couldn’t he talk like they could? Why did everything he tried to say come out as an awkward mess?

“You think she’ll keep her halves different?” Tilli asked then, interrupting Leeroy’s thoughts. Her hair changed colour again then, becoming green this time.

“No. We can’t attract any attention on this mission. That’s why they sent us three in the first place. Julia will just have to adjust to acting normal again. That’s probably gonna be hard, considering her devotion to the differences for Zexa Xeza.”

“I really wonder how she does it…” Tilli pondered aloud.

Zexa Xeza was another name that Leeroy recognized. They were the twin priestesses of the Dials. That certainly explained a few details about Julia!

“For that matter, YOU need to stop switching timelines constantly,” Estella commanded.

“W-what? But but…” Tilli stammered.

“No buts! Kaidyn isn’t here so there’s no need to be changing constantly,” Estella said.

“It’s… it’s not like I can control it!” Tilli shouted. When her hair turned red again, Leeroy finally guessed what was going on.

“It’s tied to your emotions!” he said, feeling rather proud of himself for figuring it out.

“Yeah, that!” Tilli said.

Estella rolled her eyes at that and placed her hand on her forehead. “Of course,” she sighed. “Well, can you at least try to control your emotions a bit?”

Tilli closed her eyes before letting out a soft breath. It worked wonders it seemed as her hair turned blonde again. “I will try my best,” she said calmly.

“Excellent,” Estella cheered, just as Julia left the cabin again.

“Arrrr!” she shouted. She too now wore some old sailor’s clothes. It actually didn’t look all that bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that her hair and eye colours were still missmatched, and she still wore a necklace with a golden sun and a silver crescent moon hanging from them.

“Hmmm… ah, I know!” Estella said. She then dug into the pile of extra clothes that they had brought along for the trip just in case and got out an old shirt. She then just ripped the thing apart before tying the rags around Julia’s head, turning it into a makeshift bandana that covered her hair. Then she got out an eyepatch and placed it over one of Julia’s eyes.

“Looks good!” Tilli cheered, to which Estella nodded.

“Thanks, Stell. Your turn then,” Julia grinned.

When Estella was in the cabin, Tilli turned to Julia and held a hand over her mouth, yet she spoke loud enough for Leeroy to still hear her. “Has she always been this bossy?” she asked.

Julia laughed then. “It’s what you get when you’re the daughter of a high priestess. Her other mom, Cassiopeia, says raising her was quite the handful,” she grinned as she temporarily removed her eyepatch.

“I heard that!” came Estella’s voice from inside the cabin.

“I know you did,” Julia chuckled. “In all seriousness though. She’s mostly trying to prove herself to her mothers. Neither of them really wanted her to go on this mission out of worry but everybody else agreed she should go. That’s why she wants this mission to go perfectly… and why she’s kinda acting like Cassie right now.”

“Huh… like mother, like daughter, I guess,” Tilli giggled. “I guess you two must go back quite a bit.”

“We were the only humans at the temple for quite a while until you showed up. So we’ve been hanging out every now and then to talk about… well… human things,” Julia laughed.

“Is that why they sent you three?” Leeroy asked then. “Because you’re the only humans?”

Julia nodded. “You can try and disguise the priestesses all you want, but they’ll still just attract too much attention,” she explained.

“Ah… true,” Leeroy nodded as he recounted the high priestesses. Sure, they all had humanoid bodies but none of them were human. From a dryad to a brass clockwork ballerina, each of them really stood out.

“How’s this?” Came Estella’s voice as she left the cabin. She now wore a similar outfit to that of her companions. She had tied her hair into a pony-tail and it appeared that she still had at least one clock on her as a necklace. When all three gave her a thumbs up, she grinned.

That’s when Leeroy noticed something rising over the horizon. It was mostly dark, but a large section of it was lit up. They had almost reached their destination.

Docking proved easier than Leeroy had anticipated. Indeed, most of the dockworkers were passed out drunks, and those that did still linger cared little for a small sailboat such as theirs. Either that, or, as Leeroy feared, they were planning on simply stealing his boat. Of course, he left behind some magical protections, but it was still worrying to leave ‘The Black Swan’ behind like this. He just hoped and prayed that everything would be alright in the end.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the sounds of partying could be heard all over town. The smell of fish and rum permeated the air here. Something that apparently got to be a bit much for Tilli as she wanted to just cover her nose, only for Estella to tell her to cut it out. The streets weren’t exactly the cleanest and most of the buildings were somewhat shoddy at best. Some of them had broken windows while others had giant holes in the roof. At one point, the group rounded a corner just as a guy fell right through a window, only for him to get back up and jump right back in. Apparently there was a bar brawl going on in there.

Most of the pirates were too drunk to care much about other people passing through. A fair amount, though, still gave them just a bit more than a passing glance. Leeroy wasn’t surprised, given that his companions were all women, even through their disguises.

“I’ll never complain about down-town Stepolis again…” Tilli whined.

“Hush,” Estella hissed as a particularly big and burly pirate passed the group. He seemed to eye their group for just a moment longer but then he just went about his way again.

“Where do we even go from here?” Tilli asked, looking around.

“If we uh… just keep on… we’ll just have to walk away from the sea,” Leeroy stammered.

Estella nodded. “So this way,” she pointed.

The four were about to start walking again when suddenly… Leeroy felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw that it was the big burly man from before. “You gonna share that?” he asked, pointing at the three women.

Leeroy got incredibly pale, Estella looked absolutely appalled and Tilli looked visibly scared. Her hair seemed to have turned purple as a result. Julia on the other hand looked incredibly furious. “Say that again!” she yelled at him.

The big burly man grinned then, showing off his terrible dental hygiene, and leaned over right in Julia’s face. “I said… is this wimpy excuse of a man going to share you three or not?” he said, fairly loudly so that other people in the street could hear him.

Julia’s visible eye twitched. She then clenched her fist and got ready to punch.

“Julia, no!” Estella called out but it was too late. Her companion gave the man such a strong punch in the face that he fell over onto the ground and he was out like a light.

Leeroy looked from the man to Julia, who was wiping some grime off her fist. Tilli looked mortified while Estella just glared at Julia. For a moment, the whole street was silent, until everybody burst out into loud cheering and laughter. This actually surprised all four of them. Julia just grinned and bowed to the audience while Tilli awkwardly helped Leeroy up. Then, everybody just moved on with their lives again, leaving the man just lying there.

“T-t-thanks…” Leeroy muttered. It was a good thing Julia was there to save the day alright. It kind of made him wonder what he was even doing here in the first place. He could have just stayed on his boat. Then again, he would have been there all alone if that were the case.

“That was reckless of you!” Estella hissed at Julia.

“I wasn’t exactly gonna let that go unpunished, was I?” Julia replied, crossing her arms.

“We’re lucky everybody thought it was funny!” Estella argued. “If they hadn’t we may have had to fight our way through and somebody might have gotten hurt and then my moms are NEVER letting me go on a mission like this again…” She sighed then, looking to the ground.

That’s when Julia placed a hand on Estella’s shoulder. “Hey, cut it out, okay?” she smiled. “We’re going to find this keeper and your moms are gonna be proud of you.”

“... You really think so?” Estella asked.

Julia nodded. “Zexa Xeza was crazy worried about me, but I know they’ll love it when I tell them of this guy,” she chuckled. “Point is… they’re never really going to stop worrying about you, and that’s a good thing. It shows that they care. All you gotta do is just be yourself and show that you can do this in your own Estella way.”

Estella gave a meek smile then. “Thanks… and honestly, that was really awesome,” she admitted.

As the two were having a heart to heart, Leeroy had started looking over the man. “Did… did you kill him?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh! Nah, he should wake up with a bad headache after an hour,” Julia grinned. Knowing that these people were from the temple of time, Leeroy figured that that hour estimate was probably very accurate.

“Uhm…” Tilli interrupted then. “Can we finally move on again? This city is giving me the willies…”

Estella nodded, suddenly looking a whole lot more determined and in control than before. “You’re absolutely right! Let’s go, team human!”

Getting through the rest of the city was actually quite uneventful. Estella just strutted through the city as if she owned the place, and it appeared that this actually demanded quite a lot of respect from the pirates. Julia’s talk must have done wonders to the girl’s self esteem. Eventually, the group finally reached the edge of the forest. A few people gave the group some odd looks as they left the city behind. They were probably just curious about their direction, Leeroy figured.

“Whoah, it’s so dark here…” Tilli said. Even though the party had lit up a torch, it was still pretty hard to see anything in here.

“The pirates must not like leaving their city all that much,” Julia surmised as she removed her eyepatch.

Leeroy didn’t really blame the pirates. After all, the forest looked pretty creepy. The trees did not look comforting, there was an eerie silence and though there was a path here, it didn’t look like anyone had been here in years. It really gave him the creeps, and it seemed that that was the case for the others too. As such, he decided to keep the conversation going to distract from the forest. “So… uh… Who is this keeper anyway?”

“She’s the Keeper of Bells. She is one of the original five keepers of time. When our goddess died, the five keepers at the time went into a deep slumber in order to prevent time from desynchronizing. Her shrine is supposed to be on this island.” Julia explained.

“But… if they went to sleep to prevent a temporal disaster, then… why are they waking up now?” Leeroy asked.

“Because of the new keepers,” Tilli smiled. “With the new keepers present, they can maintain the flow of time without having to stretch themselves super thin and all that.”

“Indeed. And also, my mother has foreseen an event that will take place soon. An event for which we will be needing all ten keepers,” Estella added.

“Ten?” Leeroy tilted his head. Counting them all up, he was certain there were only eight keepers, if one were to count Zexa Xeza as one. This keeper of bells would of course make the ninth but then there was still one missing...

“We… currently don’t know yet where or even who the fifth new keeper is,” Estella sighed.

“We only know what her DLC is. It’s a…” Julia said, but she was interrupted by Tilli.

“Look! It’s the shrine!” she shouted.

“Ah, excellent!” Estella cheered.

However, what they saw wasn’t exactly worthy of cheering. Before them stood a pretty big, distinctly eastern pagoda with five floors. Leeroy guessed that the only reason they hadn’t seen it yet from the sea was because of the darkness of night. From what Leeroy could see, there were clocks hanging on all four sides on the third story. There were several bells hanging from each roof corner, though some had fallen off already. There was also a huge belfry on the fifth floor, but it was too dark to spot the bells. Some of the roof tiles had fallen down and there was a rusty, ancient spire lying next to the pagoda. Leeroy guessed that it had probably fallen from the very top of the pagoda. Black and red were the colours used most it seemed. The place must have looked quite impressive back in the day when it was still visited daily but now…

“You know… when they said ‘keeper of bells’, I didn’t expect her shrine to look this… ominous,” Tilli whined. Indeed, this place didn’t look all that cheery, and that wasn’t just because of the worn-down status of the whole thing. There were two large statues of rather scary-looking lions at the front. There were also several wooden carvings of dragons all over the pagoda. A thousand years of abandonment didn’t really do their appearance much justice.

“Yeah…” Julia nodded, eyeing some of the dragons.

“Hmmm… I guess we should check the area first,” Estella said. Both her and Julia then looked to Tilli whose hair by now had turned an even deeper shade of purple.

It wasn’t until a few moments later when Tilli realized what was going on. “O-oh!... fi-fine…” she whined. She then stepped forwards. She put on her bravest face, which seemed to turn her hair red this time, before enveloping herself into an aura of light and vanishing from sight. Looking around, leeroy could see that she had teleported herself to the first floor balcony. Moments later, she was on the second floor. And then on the other side. And again. And again! Leeroy had never seen someone teleport this effortlessly before. Teleportation spells were usually quite hard to pull off after all.

“Do we even know how to wake her up?” Julia asked.

“Ehehehehe… not really, no,” Estella admitted. “BUT! I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

“Then… how did the others wake up?” Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, the others just kinda… did. My mom showed up at Ysera’s shrine just as she awoke. Then my mom and Bridget also just… showed up right as Hestia awoke. Aria was there when Feline awoke and Bridget and Hestia together were there to wake Christine up. As far as I know, they all just woke up by themselves. That or maybe we just… have to ring a bell or something,” Estella explained.

Just then, Tilli returned to stand next to them to give her own two cents. “But they were are all time elementals. We’re only humans! Would our connection to time be enough?” she asked.

“I’m sure it will! There’s three of us after all,” Estella cheered, though she didn’t seem as certain about it to Leeroy.

“I hope you’re right, then!” Tilli said before just blinking elsewhere again.

“And what if we can’t wake her up?” Julia asked.

“Then… one of the keepers will have to come here after all, but that’s just far too risky, what with the pirates,” Estella sighed.

“All clear,” Tilli said smiling upon her return. Her hair was blonde again and only now did the light that surrounded her extinguish again.

“So… we go inside now?” Leeroy asked, not exactly looking forward to that.

“We’ll have to, yes,” Estella nodded as she walked up to the front door. It was a huge set of wooden doors with a clock’s face carved into it. It also had a knocker on both doors, but it was highly unlikely that they would be answered. Opening the doors, however, looked like it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Let me at it,” Julia grinned. She then slammed her fist into her other hand before stretching her fingers. Finally, she grabbed a hold of one of the doors and just started pulling with all her might. It was incredible to see, but she actually caused the door to budge and eventually open up as well. Leeroy knew that she was strong judging by her muscles and her earlier run-in with the pirates, but THIS strong?

As the doors opened, the group got their first look at the inside of the shrine… and it somehow looked even more solemn on the inside than out. In the torch-light, Leeroy could make out a huge worn-down shrine on the far wall that had been all but destroyed by a fallen-over pillar. The floor was just an absolute mess of things that had fallen down from the upper floors. There was a spiralling staircase leading up in the middle, and they could see that the upper floors didn’t fare much better. There were rotting benches and vague symbols could be seen on the walls. Dust and cobwebs had claimed most of the room.

“How welcoming…” Estella sighed.

Tilli was the first to take a few careful steps inside. “Helloooooo? Is anybody here?” she called out. Her voice echoed throughout the entire tower, but other than that, she was met with silence.

“Keeper of bells?! We come from the new church of time! We’ve come to wake you up!” Estella called out.

Nothing.

“We’ll have to search,” Julia said, joining the two while clapping some dust off her hands.

Leeroy, however, was still outside. How could the girls all have just walked in like that without preparing? There could have been a trap or something! Sighing, he just carefully joined them inside.

“Guess we’re going up to the belfry?” Tilli proposed.

“That staircase doesn’t really look all that stable anymore…” Leeroy moaned, eyeing the old wooden steps.

“But it’s the only way up,” Estella argued, already approaching the stairwell.

Leeroy groaned but he decided to act brave this time. After all, if he goes up the stairs first, then it’ll be over sooner. As such, he placed his foot on the first step. It felt sturdy enough alright. The second step on the other hand was a lot softer, and things didn’t really improve from there…

“Are you sure about this, Estella? Tilli asked as she too took her first few steps on the staircase.

“Not all of us can teleport around, Tilli. Some of us have to walk,” Julia chuckled, following suit.

Things seemed to be going alright. That is until Leeroy got about halfway up the stairs, when he felt the next step actually move as he placed his foot on it. Out of panic, he yanked his foot back and stepped on the previous step, but this only caused this step to also start shifting around. “We gotta get off this thing!” he shouted.

“What?!” The three women cried out in unison as they too now noticed the splintering wood.

Leeroy wanted to go back down, but since his way was still blocked by his companions, the only way he could go was up. As such, he got into a sprint and barged up the stairs as fast as possible. Some of the steps held while others simply fell out the moment he left it. It didn’t matter, he had to get up as fast as possible before the whole staircase came down! When he finally reached the second floor, he let out a sigh of relief. Looking around himself though, he saw that he was the only one who had made it up. Panic set in but it was quickly relieved again when he saw them on the ground floor. “Are you okay?!” he called out to them.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Tilli cried out in return.

“Tilli got hit by a stray plank!” Estella replied. It appeared that she was using magic on Tilli’s leg.

“Stell’s gonna have to heal her before we move on,” Julia called out.

“And… w-what about me?” Leeroy asked.

“Are you hurt?” Julia asked.

“No… I guess not,” Leeroy replied as he checked himself over.

“Well then… just stay there and we’ll think of a way to get you down when Stell’s done,” Julia said.

“Great…” Leeroy muttered to himself. He just sighed and looked around at his new surroundings. If anything, this place actually looked quite nice. Unlike the ground floor it seemed to have withstood the test of time surprisingly well. It was quite open here and he got a very good view of the whole island from up here. There were a few old bells lying around here and there that had obviously fallen down from the beams up above. There were bronze bells, silver bells and even golden bells. None of it was as impressive as the absolutely gigantic bell that hung in the middle. It looked like it was made out of iron. How loud it must sound when rung…

Possibly even more intriguing than the iron bell though was the tiny silver bell lying on a pedestal underneath it. It was quite a pretty little thing alright, and Leeroy found himself carefully approaching it to take a better look at it. Everything in the room, while impressive looking, was also mostly covered in dust. This small bell though was completely unblemished. There was writing on it, but the symbols looked alien to him.

“Leeroy?!” came Estella’s voice from behind him.

He had been so caught up with the pretty silver bell that he had almost forgotten where exactly he was. Thus he walked back to the hole in the ground where the staircase was. “Yes?” he called down.

“What do you see up there?” she asked. It seemed that she was still in the process of healing Tilli who, by the way, looked like she was being way too overly dramatic about her wound.

“Well… uh… bells. Lots of bells,” Leeroy replied.

“Any sign of the keeper?” Julia asked.

“No… There’s no-one here,” Leeroy said.

The women all looked at each-other for a moment then. “Tilli will come up with you shortly. We’ll think of something then,” Estella said.

Leeroy nodded at them before moving back to look at the pretty silver bell again. It was quite captivating to look at alright. A part of him was reminded of his first time seeing a sailboat or his first time out at sea on his own. He really wanted to hear what it sounded like. Well… seeing as his companions were still busy, there probably wasn’t any harm in ringing it, right? It was so small after all. They probably wouldn’t even really hear it.

He had made up his mind. Carefully, he picked up the small bell. It felt oddly cold to the touch. As if it was a small clump of ice. He hesitated for a short moment. This thing was probably magical. Maybe he shouldn’t ring it… but he simply couldn’t resist it. Thus he gave the trinket the tiniest of swings.

… tinkle…

The chime that followed sounded so clear and wonderful. It was simply divine! Oh how beautifully it chimed and sang its celestial tune. His favourite sounds of the sea simply could not compare at all. He didn’t even really realize the silly smile he had on his face as he listened to it.

Leeroy rang it a second time, shaking it a bit more, and it sounded even better! It was strange. It was just one tiny bell but it was as if this bell had so much to say. It sang of merry times. It told of the first snowfall of the winter times. It chimed along the sound of the creaking ice over a lake. Even amidst a pirate-infested island far away from his sailboat, it was nice, cheerful, and calming. He soon realized how soft it made him feel.

He couldn’t contain himself, he had to ring it a third time!

… tinkle…

… ting…

As he rung it again, he heard something that he didn’t expect. Instead of just the soft chime of the silver bell, a new sound joined into the mix. He jumped and quickly looked around to see where it had come from, only to find that it was actually one of the golden bells hanging from the ceiling. It seemed to have started swinging… for some reason. Sure, there was a bit of a breeze up in the belfry, but it definitely shouldn’t be enough to make one of these heavy bells start swinging, right? And yet here it was, softly ringing on its own. It wasn’t unpleasant to listen to though. In fact, it sounded very beautiful. Unlike the melodious chiming of the small silver bell, this bell sounded louder. It sounded… happy.

Soon another bell joined its companion. And another… and another! Had Leeroy’s ringing of the silver bell started this? If so, this should probably really worry him… and yet he wasn’t. The harmony of this happy jingling and gleeful swelling just lifted his mood up so much. Oh how joyfully they sang their song. All of his worries seem to just wash off him. The only thing that still lingered was whether the girls would be angry with him once they get up for ringing these sacred bells. Ah, but that would be a problem for future Leeroy, he thought to himself. For now he felt as happy as the bells themselves.

That’s when something seemed… off. His hair was hanging over his eyes. He had been brushing it aside a few times as he listened to the song of the bells but only now did he realize how strange this was. He had always kept his hair short. How was it now hanging over his eyes? As he held up his hair, he also noticed something off about his hand. It seemed smaller, and a lot softer too. What was going on?

“Oh no…” he gasped to himself. While the bells still jingled and swelled, he started frantically inspecting his own body. He had become quite a bit shorter from his usual self judging by the fact that his clothes had started sagging quite a bit. His skin felt so much softer than usual and he could feel a numb pain in his chest. This definitely wasn’t good…

Ting, ting

Bing, bong!

It was as if the bells had heard his worries then, for their happy song actually changed as well. As more and more bronze bells joined in on the chorus, their ringing actually became more urgent. Their clamor and clangor swelled up more and more as Leeroy became increasingly worried about his body. He wasn’t sure whether the bells were reacting to him, or whether he was reacting to the bells.

The numb pain on his chest became stronger as it started pushing out into two lumps. With disbelief he stared as two breasts formed on his shirt. He gasped as he physically felt his manhood retreating back into his body. He reached for it, but to no avail, as it soon formed a rather feminine slit instead. This wasn’t happening…

And all the while, the bells howled. A cacophony of sound that swelled and clanged. Their clamor must have been audible throughout the entire island! The girls downstairs must be hearing it at least. Surely they will come up soon to rescue him from all of this, right? … Right?

“E-Este-What?!” he tried calling out to them, only to realize that his voice sounded so much higher in pitch. His hair was now reaching down beyond his shoulders even and his shirt was now more like a tent while his pants had already fallen down his legs. Thankfully, he seemed to have stopped shrinking now, but the changes sure weren’t stopping. His, or more accurately her shoulders slimmed down while her facial features became even softer. Any hairs on her body other than on top of her head simply vanished into thin air. As the bells howled and clanged, she caught her reflection into some of them, and she was shocked by what she saw. Leeroy had turned into a Weebonese girl! Her short physique, the shape of her eyes, her new hairstyle, it was all very much like any far eastern woman!

The bells clamor and clangor didn’t show any signs of stopping. These brazen bells weren’t just growing more urgent, they were seething with terror. As if to send a warning. As if they howled of a forceful fire, or of a terrible hurricane. Oh how turbulent they howled and growled.

Leeroy found herself curling up in a ball, the silver bell tightly clutched in her hand. She placed her arms over her head, trying desperately to cover herself from the cacophony, but it was useless. The bells rang and rang, louder and louder.

“Make it stop…” she whimpered softly, but the bells rang.

“Make it stop.” she said a little louder, but the bells howled.

“MAKE IT STOP!” she yelled… and so did the bells finally stop. The belfry went as silent as it had been before. Her ears were still ringing slightly, but other than that, there was nothing. Opening her eyes, she looked around. The bells were hanging still, as if they hadn’t even moved to begin with. Brushing her hair to the side, she slowly stood up again, looking around in confusion. Had all of this just been an illusion? Well, no, that certainly wasn’t the case, for she was still a woman. Yet the girls downstairs weren’t calling out to her.

“At… least it stopped,” she sighed. She was about to finally step away from the altar then when…

… GOOOONNNGGGGG!!!!

An overwhelmingly loud clash of iron on iron sent the newly transformed girl buckling down and dropping to the ground. She screamed out from the deafening gong and tried desperately to crawl away, only for another eardrum shattering gong to howl out. The large iron bell had started singing its own tune. It was so loud that it too much to handle…

Or was it? As it tolled a third time, as loud as before… Leeroy actually thought that she heard something. It wasn’t just an incredibly loud noise. No. It was like the bells from before. The silver bell sounded merry. The golden bells sounded joyful. The bronze bells sounded turbulent. And now… this iron bell sounded solemn. It was as if it mourned. As if its monody told a tale of solitude and sadness.

By the fourth gong, loud as it was, Leeroy actually stopped covering her ears. By the fifth toll, she looked back up again. By the sixth cry, she found herself standing up again. The tolling of the iron bell was louder than any sound she’d ever heard, but it no longer seemed to faze her.

“You’re… sad,” Leeroy said, surprising herself even on the seventh gong. Why was she speaking to a bell? It was a bell. A thing. And yet its song was filled with so much feeling and emotion.

“You’re alone?” she asked, just as it gonged its eight toll.

“You’re missing someone,” Leeroy deduced calmly on the ninth gong. The bell must be missing the keeper of bells after all.

“Where is she though?” she asked herself on the tenth toll. Wasn’t she supposed to be asleep right here?

“I know where she is…” she said then as the eleventh gong howled out across the island. It seemed so obvious to her now.

“I’m right here,” she said on the twelfth toll before outstretching her hand and touching the bell’s massive clapper, instantly causing the bell to become still once more. She smiled at it, and it truly felt like she was reuniting with an old friend.

And then the bell dropped.

She closed her eyes calmly. She wasn’t scared as the bell fell right over her, trapping her within. Yet it never touched the floor. Rather, it hovered over her before shrinking down somewhat. The top of the bell opened up, as well as two holes on the side. Two appendages seemed to grow out of these two holes. The outside of the bell seemed to take on a more fabric-y look while the inside remained iron. Soon, the whole bell looked more like a silky gothic dress than anything else. A gothic dress that wrapped itself around her body and fit her perfectly. The inside was still very much a bell alright, and the iron felt rather cold around her body, yet she wasn’t bothered by it. Not at all. It felt comforting. It felt right.

As her skin started taking on a pale complexion, more bells came down from the ceiling. Bronze, silver, golden, all of them came down. Some bells spiralled around her sleeves while others attached themselves to the hem of her skirt. Two silver bells reached into her hair and tied it up into two ponytails, where they wrapped themselves around the ties. Two bronze bells reached for the very end of her sleeves and attached themselves, merging to form cone shapes that were still very much functioning bells. Lastly, the silver bell that had started it all. She had held onto it throughout the entire ordeal, and now it too was glowing. It hovered out of her hand and rested right over her neck, where it formed a ribbon.

As she looked down at all of this happening, she didn’t know what to feel. As her skin now turned a pristine white, memories of her sailboat were becoming incredibly hard to remember, while new memories entered her head.

But… they weren’t new memories, where they? These were old memories. Very old memories. As her shoes morphed into knee-high boots, she remembered. She remembered the bells. Bells ringing to introduce a new day. Bells singing to end another hour. The bells that could twinkle. The bells that could ring. The bells that could howl. The bells that could sing. The bells. Her bells. She was their keeper after all. She was tied to them and they were tied to her. After all…

She was time.

While black eyeshadow applied itself to her eyes, she realized this truth about herself once more. Of course. She was the Keeper of bells. She was Time. She served the goddess Alinavious. And she was… awake? Why was she awake? It was quite the conundrum alright.

“Whoah!” came a sudden voice from behind her. Looking over, the Keeper saw a rather short girl, barely taller than herself with blue hair.

Calmly, the keeper turned around to look this strange girl over, chiming a few of her silver bells in the process.

“Are… you the keeper of bells?” the girl asked.

The keeper nodded wordlessly, uncertain yet about whether the girl was friend or foe.

Just then, the girl’s hair turned blonde as she smiled broadly. “Girls, I found her!” she called out.

“Wait, really?!” “See, I told you it would work, Tilli!” came two more voices from two unseen women.

“Who… are you?” the keeper asked. Though her voice was quite high pitched, it also sounded quite raspy. She sounded quite neutral too. After all, she had never really been all that good at expressing her emotions. The bells did that for her.

“I’m Tilli,” the girl smiled. “My two friends down there would be joining us here but uh… well, we kinda broke the stairs trying to come up here. Sorry about that.”

“I… see,” the keeper said, tilting her head. “And you were looking for me?”

“Oh yes! But uh… let’s try and go down first. Hold on to me. I can teleport us down but… well it takes a lot out of me, so we gotta get it right in one go.”

“Ah… right. I guess that would make talking easier.” the keeper said. Confused as she was, she just did as she was asked. She walked off her platform and approached this ‘Tilli’ person. The bells around her body jingled and tinkled as she walked. It was definitely something that she had missed after a thousand years of sleep. Carefully, she held the girl’s outstretched hand, just as the girl started glowing. It was a dim glow at first, but it grew out brighter and brighter. Soon, the keeper had to close her eyes and when she opened them again, she was no longer up in the belfry alright. Instead, she was down in the main hall of her pagoda. Or… what’s left of it at least. Looking around, there was so much rubble and dust everywhere. The Chronan texts on the doorway were barely visible. The benches had mostly broken down from the collapsed staircase and pillars. It was truly a sight for sore eyes. It was to be expected of course but still…

“Whoa… it really is her,” came a female voice. Looking over, she saw the two other women she had heard earlier. A pink-haired woman and a woman whose hair was both black and white.

“Greetings!” the pink-haired woman spoke up. “My name is Estella and this here is Julia. It is an honour to meet you!”

The keeper gave them a silent, expressionless curtsy in return.

“So… what’s your name?” Julia asked.

Her name… she knew her own name of course, even if she hadn’t used or heard it in a very long time. “I’m Lorelei,” she answered.

“Pretty…” she heard Estella mutter under her breath.

“So why have you awoken me? And how do you know who I am? I didn’t think I’d be all that famous 1044 years after I went to sleep,” Lorelei pondered out loud, her voice as monotone as ever.

“Oh, right! You see, we are representatives of the new church of time. We have been sent by your sisters to wake you up,” Estella explained.

“My sisters…” Lorelei repeated, looking down to the ground as her iron bell tolled solemnly. She had missed them a great deal alright.

“Ysera, Hestia, Feline and Christine, yes. You’re the last to wake up. At least… from you original five keepers,” Julia smiled.

This caused Lorelei to look up again. If they had all awoken before her, that meant that she would see them again soon. Realizing this, two of her golden bells sang happily. Yet throughout it all, her face remained neutral. “Original… you mean to tell me there are more keepers of time now?”

“Yeah! There’s four new keepers and we’re looking for number five!” Tilli cheered.

“That’s… unexpected…” Lorelei mused. If all of this was true, then the church of time had indeed been resurrected, and bigger than ever before! Yet… she knew the sad truth that their goddess was still not there. She could not feel her presence after all. She stepped towards the grand doors then, the iron bell of her dress tolling softly. “Then let us get back to them.”

“Ah… about that,” Estella started, nervously touching her index fingers, “getting off Furukyo is going to be a bit of an issue.”

“Furukyo?” Lorelei asked. That was definitely not the name of her island. Her island was called Nakakyo back in the day. “What happened?”

“The island’s kiiiinda infested with pirates,” Julia explained.

Lorelei’s eyes widened somewhat. “What? But this was the seat of the royal family of Nipshon.” She moved her hands to make the bronze bell clang in alarm then. If it weren’t for them, she would appear incredibly nonchalant and uncaring about the whole matter. Something that was of course not true at all.

“Well, it isn’t anymore, I’m afraid,” Tilli said.

Lorelei looked to the ground again. “What has become of my homeland?” she asked. She almost didn’t want to hear the answer.

“Oh, don’t worry. The land is mostly fine. It has just had to move its capital city elsewhere. Also… the counties called Weebon now,” Julia said.

“I… see,” Lorelei said. This calmed her down somewhat alright, but it was still sad to see this happening.

“This island must have meant a lot to you,” Estella said.

Lorelei sighed as more memories of the past returned to her. She remembered the war between Nipshon and Stepolis. A war that lasted until the church of time stepped in to start peace negotiations. Lorelei herself ended up joining the church and she herself became a symbol for peace, even if she had to give up her humanity for it. Not that she regretted that. On the contrary. “More than a lot… I was her princess at one point,” she explained.

All three women gasped at that. “Y-you were a princess?!” they asked in unison.

“I… guess I should have said that sooner. I should have realized that it’s not all that common to be a princess,” Lorelei replied, ringing a few of her bronze bells nervously.

“You can say that again,” Estella laughed. “But… what’s with the outfit then? That looks kinda western.”

“Oh… I thought that if I was going to be a symbol of peace between our nations, I would wear some of Stepolis fashion. Ysera and the others showed me this, and I instantly fell in love, though my father didn’t like it very much. In hindsight, maybe it was a bit rude of me to start wearing it,” Lorelei explained.

“I think it suits you!” Tilli smiled.

“I… thanks,” Lorelei said, ringing a silver bell gratefully. “Anyway, how do we get off the island then?”

“Well, we have a plan for that,” Julia grinned as she got out what looked like a heart-shaped locket with a fiery emblem on it. When she opened it, it started glowing quite brightly as sparks flew out of the trinket. After only a few moments, a new woman stood before them. At least, she looked like a woman. In actuality, this was a fire elemental.

“... and then I sent them such a big ball of fire that… huh?” the elemental looked around herself curiously, eyeing Lorelei for a moment. “You’re not Dalia…”

“Hello there, Lucia?” Julia grinned. “Remember me?”

The elemental looked around at the woman who had summoned her. “You! I remember you… you and those twins of yours!” She certainly didn’t look all that pleased.

“I have several questions…” Lorelei frowned, holding up a finger.

“Just… go with it,” Estella replied softly. “Julia, Zexa, and Xeza, uh… their one of the new keepers. Anyways they explored a dungeon and the treasure they found was that locket which can summon a fire elemental.”

“So what do you want, huh? Scared of the dark and wanted a light?” Lucia teased.

“Hardly. How would you like to pretend to be a dragon?” Julia grinned.

Lucia held up her finger then, about to tease some more when she realized what Julia had said. “Come again?”

“A dragon. We need you to create a diversion while we sneak around to get to our boat,” Julia explained.

The fire elemental placed a hand on her chin then, thinking about it. “It would certainly be a real blast… and a flaming good story for Dalia…” she mused to herself. “Okay, I’ll do it! Just in between though, who am I distracting exactly?”

“Pirates, and lots of them,” Estella explained.

Lucia gave a haughty laugh at that. “I’ll fire up a dragon so big, those rum-drinkers won’t know what hit them!”

“Excellent! Thank you, Lucia,” Julia cheered.

“As for us, we should get ready to start sneaking!” Tilli smiled.

“I’m not exactly good at sneaking,” Lorelei said before wiggling her own body and beginning a small chorus of bells.

“Right… meaning Lucia will have to pull out all the stops for her diversion,” Estella said.

“Pshaw! Don’t get your cinders in a fit. You just get yourselves to your boat as fast as possible and I’ll see ya again once you’re out,” Lucia grinned.

Lorelei looked at the fire elemental. Did she really have to make such horribly bad puns all the time? No wonder elementals always got such a bad rep. Then again, Lorelei herself had also made some bad jokes to herself in the past. She just… wasn’t very good at telling them to others.

“Well, if everyone is ready, then let’s go, team human! Well, and Lorelei and Lucia now,” Estella laughed.

Lorelei looked around for a moment. This was likely going to be the last time she would see her pagoda for the foreseeable future while these pirates were still here. Her iron bell tolled sadly once before turning around again, determined to see her sisters again. “Let’s go then,” she said.ne is ready, then let’s go, team human! Well, and Lorelei and Lucia now,” Estella laughed.

Lorelei looked around for a moment. This was likely going to be the last time she would see her pagoda for the foreseeable future while these pirates were still here. Her iron bell tolled sadly once before turning around again, determined to see her sisters again. “Let’s go then,” she said.