Chapter 124 Time Difference Headaches

"You want what?" asked Edgar, looking at her with blurry eyes after setting her plate on the table.

"I want all of the kitchen staff brought out here," she said, picking up her fork and digging into the steaming potpie before her.

The meat broth was delicious, so she tried to catch every drop before it dripped off the meat and potatoes she was scooping out of the flaky crust.

Edgar left to fetch the workers, with a frown of disapproval. Aella knew he was thinking it was the middle of the night, and most of the kitchen workers would be asleep right now, but she had a plan in mind.

The kitchen cooks and workers began to line up, trying to hide their exhaustion and yawns. The youngest children, who cleaned the dishes and carted out the trash, had the hardest time staying awake.

"This potpie is delicious," said Aella, wiping the last of the gravy with her finger and licking it clean. "I am going to take all of you to a place where you can sleep as long as you want. Eight or ten hours is probably the longest you could stand to sleep, since I imagine most of you aren't used to getting that much."

They looked at her with confusion on their faces.

"There's no bedding there, so you'll need to grab pillows and blankets. I'll wait," she said, waving for them to hurry.

They moved slowly, from confusion and uncertainty, but soon they had all returned with their arms loaded with blankets and pillows.

"I'm taking you four at a time, to a room where you are to touch nothing. Once everyone is moved, I will inform you of the next thing," she said, standing up and approaching them.

Everyone quickly gathered into groups of four, while she started teleporting them all to the treasury. The mimic had moved all of the chests along the walls except the one she was using that went to the chicken world, and covered them with fake counters. Once she had everyone moved, she turned to them, next to the open chest, that was also decorated to not look like a chest.

"I plan to take all of you into this magical room," she said, pointing into the empty chest. "The time passes differently there, so you can sleep as long as you want, and time here will almost stand still. I plan to use this room to discuss plans with all of my people, concerning the move to the new city. The problem is, I need lots of food for my people while we discuss things. I'll show you how to step into the room, and I want everyone to follow me as quickly as you can," she said, turning and stepping into the chest.

The room she found herself in still had the spell circle design on the floor, but the room itself had changed. There was a huge table with chairs to her right, and to her left was a long buffet table. Moving quickly out of the way, she watched as people started to show up. Even though it was taking less than a second up above for them to step into the chest, it was taking ten to fifteen minutes to arrive in the room. That gave her plenty of time to organize everyone and get them out of the way for the next person to come.

"The time difference is really that much?" asked one cook, watching as the last person finally stepped into the room. "We were moving as fast as we could, to get into the empty box, but here, it seemed to take forever!"

"Why haven't we known about this place?" asked Edgar, looking around.

"It's taken me a long time to get arranged. Now that everyone is here, I want you all to sleep as long as you can. I will be back in ten hours to get you all and take you back to the kitchens. You need to cook enough for sixty to eighty people while I gather everyone together to bring here."

They all nodded, settling onto the floor with their pillows and blankets. Aella merely stepped out of the room, back to the treasury and waited for about ten seconds before stepping back into the chest.

Everyone was up and chatting with each other when she stepped down into the room. They were all very impressed with the time change, and super excited about getting some sleep.

"Things are going to be really crazy from now on, with the things I need from you," said Aella.

They all agreed as she started teleporting them back to the dining room. They rushed to put their things away and started cooking. She needed to gather her people together before taking them to the treasury. The time difference, in trying to get them all there about the same time was going to be a headache, but she would deal with that later. Teleporting around, she gathered all of her advisors, the generals, her father, Alfred, Rupert, her regents, Firion and the head builders. There were twenty tired people waiting to find out what was so important for her to bring them all together in the middle of the night.

"I'm taking you all to a secret place, that you can only get to with me teleporting you. I have a room that we can plan and discuss things without losing any time," she said, sitting at the table and giving them all a smile.

"What do you mean?" asked her father, General Brimsey, rubbing his face as he struggled with lack of sleep.

"Time in the place we are going, is moving faster than here, so if I let all of you go there and sleep for eight or ten hours, then barely any time will have passed here," said Aella.

"That sounds great," said Alfred. "When do we go?"

"Right now. I want all of you to get some sleep while I come get the food and bring it for us to eat while we are discussing things."

As Aella stood up, she could see that several of the people were confused, and knew they wouldn't understand until she could show them.

"I will take you four at a time," she said, grabbing the first four and teleporting them to the treasury.

Once everyone was moved, she stood by the chest. "Because of the time difference, you have to all step into this box as fast as you can. It will still seem like forever between each of you on the other side. I'll go first so you can see what I mean," she said as she stepped into the chest.

As she stepped out of the way for the next person to come through, she noticed that the mimic must have ordered the chickens to build her another room as there was an extra door that hadn't been there before. Checking it out, while she waited, Aella found a barracks kind of room filled with beds. That would come in handy so people weren't sleeping on the floor.

It took two hours for everyone to enter the room, so she went ahead and had them go pick out a bed to sleep on. Once everyone was settled in to sleep, she went to check on the food. By the time she got back with the first cart laden down with food, everyone was up again, sitting at the table talking.

"Oh, good! I'm starving!" exclaimed Kieran, rushing over to help her unpack the cart. "It felt like you were gone for days!"

"She was," said Firion. "Is one hour a second in the other world?"

Aella stopped to think about that. "I guess?"

"So, if it took you five minutes to get something in the other world, how long do you think you were gone?" he asked her.

She felt like fidgeting as the math escaped her.

"It was a really long time, Aella. Next time, I suggest having the food ready to take with us, when we come, so that we're not sitting here, starving for days. It's a good thing you had water for us to drink, and the snacks from the strange chicken creatures were nice, too."

She sighed and sat down at the table. "Fine, just eat something and stop harping on me. This is all new for me and I still have some issues to work out, alright?"

"That's what we're here for," said Frederick, sitting next to her with a smile. "To help you get things figured out so this move you want can go so much smoother."

Everyone was lined up, grabbing food and heading to the table. It didn't look like there would be nearly enough for a second meal. She was going to have to think of something else, because Firion was right. She couldn't run and fetch anything fast enough without it taking forever here.

"Can you explain first, why this move is so important?" asked General Brimsey, sitting at the table with a large plate of food.

"Yeah, I can," she said. This would work! She was going to make it work!