Codrin stole a few long seconds with eir eyes squinted shut. The light itself was loud, the noise bright. Everything was just slightly off, just slightly wrong.
And then, those seconds passed, and the noise was less blinding, and when ey opened eir eyes, ey no longer felt deafened, and ey was able to take in the world around em. The floor, the colonnaded walls, the greenery beyond. Tight-fitting stone, slick and polished.
Before em stood who ey supposed must be the Artemisian delegation.
Turun Ka and Turun Ko, judging by their artificial appearance, stood half again as tall as em. Their flesh, what might have otherwise been skin, was made of what looked to be a supple, rubbery material in gunmetal grey. Powerful thighs supported a stocky torso, and the fact that they were leaned slightly forward was counterbalanced with a thick, lizard-like tail behind them. Their shoulders were sloped and narrow, and ey could see now why they had described themselves as equally comfortable on both two and four legs: their hands were clawed and padded with five fingers and an opposable thumb, but so were their feet.
Atop a long neck rising from their shoulders sat heads with a distinctly canine bent. They were shaped, in fact, not too dissimilar from Dear's, though the ears were less outrageously large.
It was the faces, though, that captivated eir attention. They did not have visible mouths or noses, their 'muzzles' instead being covered with a somewhat lighter grey version of that same supple coating. *Porous, perhaps?* ey thought. *To let them smell? I don't suppose they need to eat. Maybe for speech?*
Rather than eyes, there was a mirrored panel of black, looking more mercury than plastic or glass. No visible eyes, no visible expressions.
*Well, this will be interesting.*
To their right stood on two legs a being of similar shape, though far smaller, coming up only to Codrin's breastbone. The longer ey looked, however, the more those similarities began to fall away. Yes, it stood on two powerful legs; yes, its body was canted forward and kept on balance with a thick tail; yes, it had an elongated snout.
However, rather than that supple plastic, it was coated in a scaly hide, washed in oil-sheen colors. Where the firstrace representatives had little in the way of facial features, though, Stolon, ey assumed, almost seemed to have a surfeit. Their eyes were bright and curious, their mouth seemingly ready to a smile --- or some other expression, ey reminded emself, as what appeared to be a smile to humans may not be so to secondrace. They did not have hair, as made sense for a lizard, but they did have a crest of what appeared to be feathers of a sort, or perhaps massively elongated scales.
Beside Stolon and standing a head shorter than even them was a creature that reminded em so much of Debarre that ey did a double-take. The resemblance was uncanny: a svelte coat of brown fur with a creamier white starting beneath the chin and heading down over their front --- or at least, ey assumed it continued beneath the thin, blue tunic they were wearing --- and a black-tipped tail behind. Plenty of whiskers, curious eyes.
The last of the Artemisians, Artante Diria, looked almost-but-not-quite human. Her features seemed far smoother, with a nose that melted into her face and earlobes that ramped smoothly down into her neck below. Beyond that, however, the differences were negligible. She could easily get lost in a crowd of humans with no problem whatsoever, another face of Asian descent. She even wore a blue tunic and sarong of nearly identical cut to what ey had worn for so long.
No, not still. Frozen. They stood frozen before the party of emissaries, unmoving. Nothing was moving. The air was still, the light seemed frozen, and even the noise seem to wash over em in strange, coarse waves.
Frowning, ey looked beside em at eir own cohort, and much the same held true. There, at least, there was a hint of movement: Sarah was turning slowly to face a noise to her left, over towards where Why Ask Questions was standing. The movement, however, was more than just slow. It was syrupy. It was thick. It was out of phase with em.
All of it was out of phase with em. Everything. The world as a whole.
"The hell...?"
Ey stepped forward enough to look down the line to either side of emself.
Tycho: frozen, confused, blanched.
True Name: eyes held open defiantly, a grimace on her muzzle showing some internal strain.
Startled, ey whirled to face the party of Artemisians. One of the firstrace members had stepped forward. Assuming the lineup was similar to their own, ey supposed it must be Turun Ko, the recorder, if Turun Ka as leader was on the end. Its voice was surprisingly mellifluous for a being that seemed to be an artificial construct.
Turun Ko tilted its chin up in a gesture ey could not understand. "Yes. You have departed-slid-away from common time. It is normal-not-unusual for the recorder consciousness-bearing system to detach-accelerate from common time at first. Those such as you and I are primed-eager to observe over time."
Codrin gripped eir notebook and pen closer to eir chest. "Common...so, the other emissaries are moving at the same time, I'm just moving slower?"
"Faster. You are existing-in-time faster, thus the other emissaries appear-seem to be moving slower."
"How do I get back?"
The firstrace...member? Firstracer? The firstracer dipped its snout with a twist to the side that gave em the sense of a shrug. "There is no hurry. We exist in synchrony. I will teach you to find common time. I must ask: you are four individuals in five forms in two phenotypes. Are you still five consciousness-bearing systems?"
It took em a moments work to disentangle the question before ey realized that Turun Ko was asking about True Name and Why Ask Questions. They were, ey supposed, still closer to being one individual than any two non-cladists.
"Yes. The Only Time I Know My True Name --- or just True Name --- and Why Ask Questions Here At..." Ey trailed off, looking at the woman who still appeared to be in mid-shout. The splash of skunk-fur appeared to have crept further up her cheek, though so out-of-phase was she with eir local time that it was hard to say for sure. More, though, something seemed...off about her. She seemed not quite as ey remembered.
"Uh, right, sorry. True Name and Why Ask Questions Here At The End Of All Things are cocladists, forks of the same root instance. Why Ask Questions is actually a fork of True Name, who is, in turn, a fork of the root instance, Michelle Hadje. They have individuated. They are...separate consciousness-bearing entities."
"Frightened, *anem*, the correct word. Both representative Why Ask Questions and leader True Name are frightened. They are un-whole. They are in pain. Leader True Name is hiding-obscuring it better. Why?"
Something about this discursive, almost lazy form of questioning made Codrin feel as though ey would be late for something. Ey wanted to urge Turun Ko to get them back to common time. *That's silly, though,* ey thought. *We have all the time we need, if hardly any is passing out there, if 'out there' is even the right term.*
Ey said, "I only have a guess as explained by one of their cocladists, that--"
"Yes...uh, *anem,* correct. One of their cocladists suggested that they might react poorly to the..." Ey trailed off, hunting for the best phrasing. "To the malleability of time. They underwent some experiences in the past regarding time, so I think they're afraid."
"Will they remain afraid-in-pain? Will they cohere?"
Codrin was silent for a long moment as ey thought about this. The part of em that wanted to say 'yes, of course' argued against the part of em that was intensely focused on that wave of skunk fur creeping its way up over her cheek.
"I don't know," ey said at last. Ey pointed carefully toward that trim of fur. "How long did it take for this to appear?"
"Zero-point-eight-two seconds common time from your arrival-constitution." Turun Ko stepped closer, bowing its head to investigate the fur. "She is existing-in-time slower. She appears-seems frozen because she is in slow-time. She departed-slid-away from common time zero-point-one-six seconds after arrival by a factor of negative two-point-six. Think-remember, recorder Codrin Bălan, and you will know these things."
Ey tilted eir head and then, considering how it felt to have a merge available to remember, tried to remember the factor by which eir experience of time differed from common time. The concepts were hazily defined to em --- ey didn't know what common time was, where the point of reference lay --- and yet all the same, ey knew that eir time-skew factor was two-point-one-eight.
On a spark of intuition, ey tried to 'remember' being at a skew of one, and sure enough, the world slid smoothly into movement again, though everything was moving half as fast as ey expected. Sound came through slowly, and ey could hear words beginning --- words from Sarah, from Tycho, from Turun Ka. It was unnerving to hear that they had been time-stretched without having their pitch modulated, but ey supposed that would be helpful in time-skewed conversations.
"I have tied-attached-synchronized my time skew to yours. If you require help with skew manipulation, I will assist. Think-remember common time, recorder Codrin Bălan."
Ey nodded and slowly allowed Turun Ko and emself to slip back into common time. There was the faintest sensorium *click*, as though a pin had slid into a shallow notch, informing em that this was the shared moment.
"--My True Name Is When I Dream of the Ode clade will accompany," Turun Ka was saying. "Representative Artante Diria will show you to your rest area. We will conduct formal greetings in one hour common time."
True Name wavered, reaching out a hand to grip at Codrin's sleeve. She remained stubbornly skunk, clinging to that appearance of being in control. "Thank you, leader Turun Ka," she said, words coming out slowly, spoken through clenched teeth. "Our apologies."
The firstracer bowed, tucking its chin close to its chest. "There is no need to apologize. Allowances are granted to those who arrive from new worlds. Representative Iska will accompany you to discuss further accommodations." It turned to face the rest of the emissaries. "You all may rest and acclimatize in the rest area we have provided for you. We welcome you."
Codrin hesitated, watching as something happened to bring Why Ask Questions back into sync with common time. Her shout completed and then turned into a low moan as she crumpled to the ground, retching. For the first time since ey'd met Michelle nearly four decades ago, ey watched the dueling identities of a mind split. Skunk and human battled battled for primacy even as True Name helped her cocladist to her feet.
"Where are they taking them?" ey asked once ey'd caught up with Artante and the other emissaries.
She smiled, nodding her head in assent. "Move is the wrong word, but skew is locked in unison for all of the inhabitants, though that of the room may still drift from common time. Your rest area will not be a unison room, but if this proves uncomfortable, we will accommodate you. Through here, you will find your beds and desks. Should you need anything in addition, please ring the bell by the door, and someone will be by to assist. I will come for you in one hour common time for the formal greeting."
They bowed once again and each walked to a bed, picking at random. They seemed comfortable enough. The desks, while plain, were a touch that Codrin appreciated, and ey set eir notebook and pen down so that ey could prowl around the room.
The far wall held window seats that looked out over a garden of strange, colorful vegetation.
As ey sat on one of these, playing with eir new-found ability to modulate time, Tycho approached. Ey enjoyed a secret moment of amusement, making the astronomer walk first slowly, now quickly, before settling back into common time once more.
"Codrin," he said, sitting down beside em. "I want to get your opinion on something before I say anything stupid."
"I am no stranger to saying stupid things, but I will do my best."
The astronomer's smile was weak as he leaned in closer, whispering, "Just between us for now, promise?"
