“Let me get this straight,” Tel said, sitting in a workroom as he imagined the soothing tick-tock of the seventeen wall-mounted clocks strumming in perfect unison around him. “The Swallowtails, though their name is unfortunately similar to Tailcoats, is a third faction, not associated with the State or the sorcerers, even though many of its members are sorcerers?

“And each of you,” he said, gesturing to the two men and the woman sitting on the stools across from him, “are Clocksmiths working with them to keep portals to the source of all Chaos closed.”

“Correct,” the woman said, obviously in charge. “The things living on the other side of the portal can control chaos, so we keep them corralled using Chronosteel spikes. These spikes limit their influence, and more so, when chaos approaches from the other side, instead of from the portal, the Chronosteel turns the chaos into order, squeezing on the portal and keeping it mostly closed,” she said, holding up her hands and pushing them together like she held an invisible ball.

“That would explain why the spikes weren’t doing their job when Shara and I found the building in the woods. It was only when our stopwatches got close enough they started working again,” Tel reasoned out, the pieces clicking into place. “It’s really very simple.”

“I’m not sure how this is simple at all,” Shara said from the corner of the room where she’d staked out a space sitting on one of the workbenches. “They just told us a story of how some secret organization has been keeping a lid on these portals for… way longer than I can even imagine. How have we never heard of them? Why aren’t the Tailcoats hunting them down? Or, even better, if these portals are so dangerous, why isn’t everybody working together to try and shut them?

“There is a lot here that doesn’t make any sense at all. Like, for example, why my mother and aunt are mixed up in any of this craziness?” she asked, then stopped. “Never mind. I take back that last bit. This type of craziness is right up their alley. The rest of my questions stand though.”

“And, are all enclaves part of the Swallowtails?” Tel asked. “I didn’t hear anything about you, and none of the books in the library mentioned the organization.”

“No,” the lead Clocksmith, Balina, said. “Only a few in this enclave even know the truth. We try to keep it quiet, sharing only with those we can trust.”

“And what makes you think you can trust us?” Shara interjected, still grumpy at the news that her mother and aunt weren’t actually at this enclave, but instead at another Swallowtail base.

“Your family,” Balina said to Shara, then looked at Tel. “And you’re one of us. A Clocksmith, I mean. Who also just happened to see one of the portals with your own eyes. We… have a lot of questions for you, when we’re finished answering yours.”

“You haven’t seen one?” Tel asked.

“No,” Balina said. “Look, I can guess what your next few questions are – probably the same ones I had – so let me fill in a few more specifics, okay?”

“Please,” Tel said, crossing his hands in his lap, the memories and voices in his head pleasantly buried under all this new information and learning.

“So, we mentioned the Swallowtails existed before the Escalation War, and the portals have been around even longer. We believe they’re somehow tied to the constant balancing of order and chaos in our world, but we’re not exactly sure how. That’s beside the point though. Somebody, before the War, tracked down these portals and came up with the system to contain them.”

“The Chronosteel spikes, and the beginning of the Swallowtails, right?” Tel figured, and Balina nodded.

“Yes. Technology was… rough, at the time, but it was enough to keep the portals mostly closed.”

“How many are there? Portals, that is,” Shara asked.

“That’s… a more complicated answer than it should be,” Balina said. “But I’m getting to it. Before that, though, the reason as to why we keep the portal’s existence a secret.”

“Somebody tried to weaponize them,” Tel blurted out. “No, that’s not right. Both sides tried to weaponize them. The State and sorcerers both,” he said, then noticed the three Clocksmiths were watching him very closely, and he ducked his head down. “Sorry for interrupting, again.”

“That’s two today, Tel,” Shara said from her bench.

“I wasn’t apologizing to you,” he shot back.

“So? I don’t remember that being part of our agreement,” Shara said.

“You are correct,” Balina said. “Not about your… agreement… or whatever that is. About trying to weaponize the portals. It didn’t go well, and our founder decided it was best to keep the portals out of everybody’s hands. The Escalation War started shortly after that.”

“Wait,” Tel said, holding up his hands. “The town the sorcerers supposedly destroyed, the catalyst that started the War, was that you guys? Well, not you specifically, but the Swallowtails?”

Balina stood up and began to pace along the wall opposite where Shara sat. “Yes, and no,” she said. “A portal was found in that town, but it wasn’t the Swallowtails that killed the people there.”

“The portal changed them, didn’t it?” Shara said. “Then the Swallowtails dealt with the result.”

“Yes, but to make sure nobody went back or asked too many questions, and in turn found the portal hidden under it again, we had to completely destroy the town. Without knowing about the portal, news spread that sorcerers were responsible for all the deaths. The State took action shortly after, and then we had the Escalation War.

“As horrible as it was, though, the War was the cover we needed to bury the knowledge of the rest of the portals. The amount of technological advances and ambient chaos energy made it possible for us to suppress the… infestations, and seal the portals. Without the explosive growth during the War, that never would’ve been possible. Sometimes I wonder if the founder did what they did at that town, knowing what the consequences would be – it worked out just too perfectly.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Too perfectly, if you don’t mind all the people who died on both sides during the war,” Shara pointed out. “Or all of the years of sorcerer-hunts, the founding of the Tailcoats, or,” she stopped and met Tel’s eyes. “Or the Clocksmiths who have been killed.”

“You’re right,” Balina said. “The consequences of those choices are evident even today. And, not just in the lives lost, as horrible as they are, but also in the state of our society. Learning is basically illegal, so most people live in forced ignorance. The technology we’d developed that could improve our lives is shunned and feared. If anything, we’re going backwards.

“But! But,” Balina said, stopping her pacing and holding up her hands. “It’s still better than the alternative. The chaos infestations around the portals were getting out of hand. The land itself was changing. If the Swallowtails hadn’t acted when and how they did, there wouldn’t even be a world for us today.”

“How is that possible?” Tel asked. “Not the part about the portals, but about how I’ve never heard any of this? If what you’re saying is true, more people should know about these portals. It should be in books.”

“The War lasted a century,” Balina said. “And while the State and sorcerers were busy trying to kill each other, the Swallowtails were quietly moving around in the background. Sealing the portals was our main job, but just as important was removing any record of them to begin with.

“While everybody was focused on the War, we rewrote the history before the War. Books were edited, scholars were convinced how important it would be to forget what they knew, and those who knew too much or didn’t agree… well… it was war, after all.

“By the time the Escalation War finally ended, a hundred years after it started. nobody was still alive who remembered the truth. And, with the condition of the world after all the fighting, people were focused on the future, not the past. Honestly, it wasn’t so difficult.”

“Sounds like your founder was pretty merciless,” Shara said.

“He was,” Balina agreed. “Directly and indirectly, there’s a lot of blood on his hands, but the world is still here because of him.”

“Who was he?” Tel asked.

“I have no idea,” Balina said. “We just call him the founder, but we actually know very little about him.”

“How’s that?” Shara asked.

“It’s actually related to your question about how many portals there are,” Balina said. “Shortly after the War ended, the locations of all the sealed portals were recorded and stored in a secret Swallowtail library. Only a few people knew the location of this library, as it was one of the few to escape the State’s knowledge purge. Anyway, it was where we kept our most vital information, including records of our founder.”

“But something happened to the library,” Tel guessed.

“Yes. The territory around it fell into Tailcoat hands,” Balina said sadly. “Shortly after they were founded. They were… and still are, I guess, terribly efficient. We lost access to the library, and even though the Tailcoats didn’t know what was in the palm of their hands, it didn’t matter. We couldn’t get to it without going through them.”

“So, what changed? Why were Neela and Born in the woods?” Shara asked. “Dumb luck?”

“No. We recently got somebody into the library, and they were able to retrieve the book that had the portals’ locations,” Balina said.

“That’s conven… waaaaaaaaaait,” Shara said, her voice going flat. “This library didn’t happen to be hidden in the peak of one of the Dry Peak Mountains, was it?”

“It was. How did you know?” Balina asked.

“And this book, was it about yay-big,” Shara asked, holding up her hands to show an approximate size, like maybe a journal. “Black, embossed leather for a cover? A red eye on it?”

“I haven’t seen it myself, but that does fit the description,” Balina said, her eyes narrowing.

“Son of a bitch!” Shara swore. “I’m the one who got that book back for you! They said they needed somebody who could get to the top of the mountain without the Tailcoats noticing. I used the money to try and get information to track my mother down… but I bet… it was her or Auntie who even suggested my name to them in the first place. SON. OF. A. BITCH! I’m going to kill her. No, I’m going to kill them both.”

“You’re going to kill the Insurmountable?” Tel asked flatly, actually having to fight to keep the smile off his face.

Shara stopped and looked at him, the glare more than enough by itself to squash any thoughts of smiling. “Fine. I’ll give her a dirty look. A really dirty one, so her magic makes her face look even worse. Hah. That’ll show her. Then I’ll kill my mother.”

“I don’t think that’s why you’ve gone to all the trouble looking for her,” Tel pointed out.

“No, but it’ll be satisfying. And you,” Shara said, spinning to point her finger at Balina, who actually jumped at the gesture. “You still haven’t told us how many portals there are.”

“I… is she always this intense?” Balina stuttered and asked Tel.

“You get used to it,” Tel said. “But, I’d answer her question before she asks again. Trust me.”

“Yeah. Trust him,” Shara added, her voice practically smoldering.

“There are nineteen portals, that we know of,” Balina said.

“Nineteen. Is that a lot?” Shara asked Tel.

“Almost as many as your fingers and toes together,” Tel answered.

“That’s a lot more than the one we found in the woods,” Shara pointed out, and the Clocksmiths gave each other sideways looks. “How many of them are open like the one we closed back up?”

“We don’t know, yet,” Balina said. “That’s one of the reasons Neela and Born brought you to us, I think. We just got the book back two months ago, and we’ve been busy cracking its cypher since then.”

“It’s coded?” Tel asked. “That also makes sense, in case it fell into somebody’s hands. Let me guess, the forest portal was one of the first you figured out, then you heard the rumors about people disappearing? Two plus two equals Born and Neela?”

“Tel, I don’t think that’s how math works,” Shara said with a shake of her head.

Tel opened his mouth, but didn’t have a response, so turned his attention back to Balina. “Any others besides the forest? Wait, there’s at least one, isn’t there? That’s where Shara’s mother and aunt are, right?”

“That’s correct,” Balina said.

“Great,” Shara said, sliding herself off the workbench and clapping her hands together. “When do we leave?”

“In two days,” Balina said, holding up that many fingers.

“Why not right now?” Shara asked.

Tel looked at the workbenches, the clocks in various states of repair, then at the Clocksmiths in the room with them. “They’re getting clocks ready to take with them,” he said.

“Correct again,” Balina said, watching him, and Tel lowered his head again. “This portal still had one working clock keeping it mostly closed, but we’re going with the plan to reinforce the protections.”

“Okay, well, just tell us where it is, and Tel and I will start in that direction. We’ll meet you there,” Shara said.

“Ah,” Balina said, but hesitated.

“You’ve been told not to tell us, haven’t you?” Shara guessed, and the look on Balina’s face confirmed it without words. “They still don’t trust us, Tel.”

“Would you?” he asked back. “It’s fine, though. Another few nights in a bed to rest after our trip. Maybe we can ask one of Swallowtails to go and get ButterBee from Gravelburg?” he suggested.

“What’s a ButterBee?” Balina asked. “That doesn’t sound like a real thing.”

“It’s a real thing!” Shara predictably snapped. “ButterBee is the most gorgeous horse you’ve ever seen. And, that’s not a bad idea, Tel. I’m guessing you wouldn’t let me go get him myself?” she asked Balina.

Balina just shook her head. “We can probably arrange somebody to go get… your horse.”

“ButterBee,” Shara said with a scowl. “It’s a wonderful name. You just… none of you get it.”

Tel nodded at Shara, then turned his attention to the clocks-in-pieces on the workbench, even going as far as to lift his hand to point. “In the meantime,” he started, “can I help?”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re fine with staying,” Shara said, crossing her arms, then huffed, and her face softened. “Fine. Two days. But you’re still cooking for me.”

“Deal,” Tel said, smiling at his friend. “Thank you.”

Strangely though, instead of smiling back, it was a flash of pain that crossed Shara’s face before she quickly nodded and left the room without another word.