Chapter 5

A lavish coach remained stopped just past the gate, the coachman tending to his horses.

???

"I've decided not to stay."

The man who, at times, was a king, a prince, a lover, but always a liar...left the moonlight to re-enter the coach.

Coachman

"But Monsieur, what about the banquet?"

???

"Capricious Fate has invited a guest of fairer mien than mine to take my chair." "Hers is center stage tonight, though I shan't stay to see how she performs. Let us depart anon."

The coach hurried off through the night, its passenger relaxing into a seat cushioned against the harshness of the road. Quietly, he spoke to himself-a bard playing to an audience of none.

???

"O, what upturned expectations have come at the arrival of this new player?"

The bard had seen Kira but for a moment, and yet, he found himself haunted by her.

???

"No devil can beguile men to persuasions more than she with an angel's form." "Or be she one of heaven's messengers behind the horns and wings of temptation?"

The coach rocked as it hit a divot in the path, sending the script in the bard's lap tumbling to the coach floor. Visible on the cover was a signature, scrawled in fresh ink-belonging to that of one William Shakespeare.

~~~~~

Gabriel

"Sebastian, if you would make us a cup of herbal tea. I think anise would be-"

Kira

"None for me, please."

Dinner had ended with no answers. Le comte invited me to his suite for an explanation, as promised.

Kira

"I have only one question. How do I get back?" "Does that door have a deadbolt? Where's the key? Is it your fingerprint? Whatever. I don't care, I just want it open."

Gabriel

"The door isn't locked. Opening it is easy. But it only opens under very specific conditions."

Kira

"What conditions?"

Gabriel

"The specifics are a bit hard to explain."

Le Comte de Gabriel Sandoval got up from his chair and stopped in front of an oversized hourglass.

Gabriel

"It will open when all the sand in this hourglass has fallen. It's quite precise, and I rely on its timing myself.

I do not like how much sand is in there.

Kira

"I see. And approximately how long does that hourglass run for?"

Gabriel

"It takes a month, on average."

A month?! On average?!

Kira

"Did you say it takes a month?'

Gabriel

"It typically takes a month for all the sand to fall. Doesn't it, Sebastian?"

Sebastian

"Yes, M. le Comte. Meaning she will not be able to leave for another month. Approximately."

Well, they can forget that!

Kira

"We're in Paris, yes?"

Gabriel

"Yes."

Kira

"I'll leave through the front door. How far are we from the Louvre?"

There's no need to fixate on that strange door! Why would I need it to get back? (I don't know how it became night without my knowing, but I can return to my hotel and get back to work tomorrow. Le Comte de Gabriel Sandoval returned to his seat and picked up a newspaper folded on the table.

Gabriel

"I'd like you to look at the date."

Kira

"Le Petit Parisien...?"

I Looked at the date. I didn't believe it.

But the paper, the feel of it, the news articles. It was too real. grew cold

Gabriel

"This is the morning's edition. As you've no doubt gathered from the date." "We're in the nineteenth century."

Kira

"This is really the nineteenth century?"

On the cusp of the turn-of-the-century, if this date is correct. But how could that be? Gabriel kept a calm, inexorable tone.

Gabriel

"We're in France, but not the France you know. You arrived at this mansion by traveling through time."

Kira

"You are kidding me."