The Tale of Amaretto

Ninth Grain

"So you're telling me as long as you know something in the timeline of the history, you can pinpoint one of the endless realities that exist," Amaretto said. She then grinned and looked at her aunt. "This is so totally science fiction!" Katherine smiled in return.

La sorcière continued. "It is when I looked that we discovered what had happened. I have one person to whom I must answer to, and we call her the Lady. I work in service with her and she is known to be more powerful than I, though most do not know it. She is the one who allows the Hourglasses to work. She is the one who works the other mirror, almost like my twin. We often talk to each other in order to correlate what it is that we see, and make changes accordingly. However, it has always been known that one cannot change what is written in stone."

At this Katherine let a look of surprise cross her face and then smothered it almost as soon as it bloomed. She then took on a stern appearance and then said, "You are babbling."

La sorcière paused for a moment and then blushed. Amaretto wasn't sure, but she thought that something passed between her aunt and La sorcière. She narrowed her eyes and La sorcière lifted her head again and tried to regain her composure before she spoke again.

"You are right. I am digressing. To put it simply, the Lady has not been in contact with me for quite some time. I later discovered that she had been..." La sorcière covered her mouth and trailed off for a moment as if she was choking on something. She looked down towards the mirror and then took a deep breath before she said the next word, "Kidnapped."

Amaretto scoffed and raised an eyebrow. "Kidnapped? You called us here because of a simple kidnapping?" Amaretto threw her hands up in the air and turned away from La sorcière to walk away and then realized that there was nothing but water surrounding where she and her aunt stood. She sighed in anger and then turned around when her aunt spoke

"Amaretto, this is unfortunately a rather big deal. This is bigger than I initially thought." Katherine frowned. "You do realize this is almost a crisis."

Amaretto rolled her eyes. "No, this is a simple thing of there being nothing to say at this moment. If she says anything more, then we will be obliged to help."

"We are already obliged," said Katherine in a small, tight voice.

"What? NO! I refuse!" Amaretto stomped her foot down and the glass rang under her feet with crystal clarity. She looked angry at the

La sorcière simply shook her head, a pained look crossing her face. "It is not that simple. She was not only kidnapped, but imprisoned beneath the Sand mirror."

Amaretto started at La sorcière for a moment before she blew up in frustration "Beneath the... I don't know where you are getting your script from but this is it! I am done; I don't want to hear any more!"

Amaretto began to try to stalk off of the glass, remembered that it was all water. Amaretto stomped her foot at the edge of the glass and screamed. The cry echoed across the chamber and then centered on the water and was slightly magnified. The water took on a violet hue and shimmered for a moment. Amaretto stared at it as a picture began to form. The image of a young blond girl sitting in a large cavern came into view. All around her was stone much like the cavern that they stood in now, only this cavern was centered on what looked to be a large writhing mass of sand rather than a faux glass dome of water. The sands below her seemed to writhe and swirl. Above it was a small ledge on which the girl sat, dangling her legs over the precipice. The girl looked down at the sand and seemed to move her lips, no words issuing forth from them, but as she did so, the sand reacted and surged upwards from the churning mass into a woman's form. The form grew until it was a large shape taking up over half of the cavern.