The Tale of Amaretto

Twenty-Second Grain

Amaretto felt a smack across the side of her chin and she stopped talking. Katherine looked into Amaretto's eyes and then said, "Slow down! I don't think Tempus is very fluent in freaked-out teenager speak!"

Tempus responded in a wry voice, "Yes, thank you Katherine. You would be correct in that."

Amaretto frowned. "I'm sorry," she said as she rubber her jaw. "That kinda hurt."

Katherine made an apologetic face. "It wasn't meant to. Oh, I'm sorry my little Amaret, but if you start to freak out, then I will start to freak out." Katherine looked at the ring. "Tempus, what are we supposed to do here?"

There was a pause as they both looked expectantly at the ring before Tempus spoke again. "I'm going to have to set out some feelers and see what happened to this timeline. It really should have been straightforward. I will check and see what is going on and then I will get back to you."

Katherine snarled at the ring. "Don't you dare leave us here without any information Tempus! I know how to find you!"

"Sorry Katherine I will get back to you in a moment, I swear!"

"Tempus don't you dare..." began Katherine, but she was cut off by a small chime coming from the ring. Katherine hissed at the ring with a dirty word.

Amaretto giggled. "Why I didn't know that you knew that word or said such things like that Aunt Katherine."

Katherine made a moue with her mouth. "I know all sorts of words, but I better never hear you say them."

Amaretto looked at the ring that was on her finger. "That was a little useless, wasn't it?" She had a grumpy expression on her face.

Katherine frowned. "I'm trying here. I'm so sorry Amaretto. I didn't mean for this to get this far out of hand though."

Amaretto smiled wanly. "It's okay. I mean, what else could I get for this but a lot of fun, right?"

Katherine tittered a moment and then turned around, looking at the other two women. "We need to get that coordinate stone."

Amaretto sighed. "I still don't think that I understand though."

Katherine shrugged. "What is there to understand? The only way to get you back home is by asking La Sorcere. The only way to get to the right half of her is to find the three coordinate stones and then we can get to the Sand Mirror, and then we can finally get home."

Amaretto felt exasperated. "But what did we see in the box?"

"That was a bit of residue from the stone itself. It was a warping in the actual fabric of time. That's how I knew that the stone and the coordinate were the same thing."

Amaretto looked back at Alice and Johanna. They had stopped arguing with each other and then looked her way. "I think the both of them are done though." Amaretto finished speaking in a whisper and it turned out that she was right. Johanna followed behind Alice as they both walked to the travelers.

Alice spoke first. "We have to go to the Tower. There is no way around it. We have to get back the Stone of Communication."

Amaretto looked at Alice suspiciously. "What is so important about this stone? Why do you need it back so badly? I know you said you can speak with the spirits with it, but isn't there another way to do so?"

Alice shook her head. "There might have been at one time, but now, there is no other way." She looked to Johanna and bit her lip. Johanna nodded her own head in return.

"Perhaps it would be better if I were to explain about my situation," said Johanna. Her voice was rather low and if Amaretto strained herself enough, she could almost imagine the woman as being sorrowful rather than a robot.

Johanna closed her eyes for a moment and seemed to compose herself and then said, "In order to use the stone to speak with other spirits, it is not that hard, but the messages that come through are usually garbled and no use at all in Alice's research. So I did a spell that allowed my soul to interact with the souls that we were calling upon. It worked. The only problem is that it has slowly been usurping my soul and with it, my ability to feel and convey emotions."

Katherine sighed in exasperation. "So that is why you act almost like an automation yourself then."

Johanna nodded her head at that moment and Amaretto almost felt bad for calling the woman a robot; however it was only very little. Even still, there was a small part of Amaretto which was still slightly annoyed at the whole situation.

"So then that means that if we don't get the stone back, you don't get your soul back?" Amaretto looked at Johanna curiously.

Alice frowned and then said, "It's worse than that. If we don't get the stone back, then she won't just loose her soul..."

Katherine narrowed her eyes. "What exactly do you mean?"

Alice frowned and then said, "It is because she gave a part of her soul over so that she can use the stone to talk with the spirits."

Katherine responded rather acidly, "Would these spirits be 'Winged Messengers of Hope'?" Amaretto could tell that her aunt was a little annoyed.

Johanna shook her head. "Not at all. They are merely white spirits amongst the ether. They tell us all about this world and the others that surround us."

Katherine looked to Amaretto and then said, "Sounds like Tempus to me."

Amaretto made an agitated face. "If it's him, I feel that he should be helping us a little more."

"Well he is working on it as best as he can," chided Katherine.

"Well I wish he would work on it faster," Amaretto said snidely.

Alice grimaced and then said, "We have to get that stone back. If we don't, it could get close to apocalyptic."

Amaretto closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked at the ring on her finger, as if waiting for it to do something. When it didn't chime, she sighed and looked resigned. Turning to her aunt she said, "We better get going before anything else happens."

Katherine just nodded her head grimly.