Temporal Relations

Bobby Biscoe was an eager little imp. Really. He was a small little orange-skinned imp, complete with pointy ears and shaggy hair. He lived in an imp village in the shade of a very old, very regal Realm tree, which was the home of the sovereign of the land. Sometimes the ruler was an empress or emperor, sometimes a king or queen, sometimes an elected official. In the countless ages of the Realm tree, the imp village continued to produce its magic and works of art. The Biscoe family was no exception.

Bobby's ancestors were known throughout the land for their magical head-wear. Everyone knew that if you wanted an enchanted helmet, a magic hat, a mystical mask or headdress, you went to a Biscoe for the best. Despite all their fame, their fortune was modest at best. Most of the proceeds of their work were given in tribute to the true ruling class of the Realm tree: the Kiven.

The Kiven were the oldest organization of the region, dating back to the time when the Realm tree was just a sapling. This priestly caste used their fledgling magic to nourish and protect the tree. They tended it through storm and drought, sun and wind. Unlike other priesthoods, Kiven membership was open to anyone, all genders, all talents, all ages could join other priests (the same word was used for both genders) in their mission to keep the Realm tree strong and healthy. Without the tree, the imps would never have been able to flourish in the land. As they tended it with magic, the tree gave them more magic in return. This magic was fostered by all the imps so that they could create their magical wares and live in safety.

On a rather normal morning, Bobby Biscoe woke from his duck-feathered mattress to the sounds of a chirping blue jay. The sun was just beginning to rise, illuminating Bobby's mushroom home. As the dawn fog receded, Bobby looked over his task list for the day. Despite the brilliance of the day, he had a particularly weighty job to do. The chief priest, Rialta, requested a special charmed chapeau to give as a gift to her protégé. The priest planned to cede her power to a promising young imp who was born into a Kiven family. As the current high priest was past the millennial age, she wished to train the new imp, Hagar Tempran, in the sacred duties of the Kiven so that there would be no disruption in the care of the Realm tree. The charm that Bobby needed to place on the chapeau was a memory charm. This should allow the wearer to instantly absorb, remember, and understand any important information given to them. It was a rather tricky charm to create. Bobby’s great-great-grandmother created the charm the first week she was married. She decided she did not want her husband to forget anything she said. She later used the charm for her children and grandchildren so that they, too, would be able to retain all the important experiences in their lives. This is part of the reason the Biscoe family was so adept at their magic hat making. The charm passed from parent to child physically in the form of a personalized chapeau and figuratively in the secret of its making when it was shared at the right age.

So, on this normally fine day, Bobby put on his chapeau, the one his father made for him when he was still a youngling imp, and set to work on the high priest’s order. He pulled out the finest blue fabric he had and began to fashion the chapeau. As he worked, Bobby began the incantation that would lay the magic into the very fiber of his work. Each stitch became an integral piece of the charm. He worked away, stitching and shaping by hand, for most of the morning, until he heard a rather insistent knock on his door.

“Bobby Biscoe! You are wanted at the palace immediately!” an unyielding voice bellowed from the other side of the entryway.

Bobby looked through his window to find a palace yitto, an imp who served the then-empress as a body guard, police detective, and personal advisor. Bobby tied off his charm with a holding spell, hoping he wouldn’t be away for too long. A holding spell was meant to pause any magical work so that the potency could be maintained, but it would not last for more than a day. After that time, both the holding spell and the charm would begin to unravel. Bobby would either have to rush home from the palace before the day way over or he would have to begin all over again the next morning. The yitto, in his deep green imperial uniform, stood impatiently at the door. Just as he was about to bang upon it once again, Bobby stepped through with his travel kit filled with sewing and magical supplies.

“I come Officer Ragoshe. There is no need to tear down my home.” Bobby intoned as he stepped over his threshold. “Would you be so kind as to inform me what the great need is so that I may better prepare myself?”

Ragoshe shook his head and directed Bobby to follow him. Three other yitto, these of lower rank dressed in pale greens and yellows, preceded them to the palace, clearing the path of any curious onlookers. While it was not uncommon for the village imps to visit the palace—Empress Lanai maintained an open and welcoming environment so that any of her subjects could enter when they desired—it was unusual in these peaceful times to see so many yitto escorting a single imp to the royal domain. As they entered the Great Hall, Bobby noticed Rialta and Hagar speaking in low whispers by a window as the light seemed to bend around them, forming many colored shapes. Again, it was not uncommon for Kiven to be found in the palace, yet something seemed to be out of place this morning. Bobby could feel a different sort of magic in the air, something more than the usual charms and incantations that were found throughout the Realm tree and the nearby village.

The three lower yitto stopped at an impressive door off to the left of the Great Hall. After a nod from Ragoshe dismissing them, they dispersed in three separate directions, presumably to carry on other duties. Ragoshe opened the door and escorted Bobby inside.

“Ah, Bobby Biscoe! I am so glad to see you this morning!” came a lyrical voice just beyond the purple curtained section of the room usually used to screen someone as they changed their clothing. In a moment, the voice was followed by a vision of friendliness and grace, Empress Lanai herself. She wore a bright yellow gown with intricate needlework on the bodice and a split skirt cut to give the appearance of both trousers and dress at the same time. Upon her head was the crown of the Realm tree, an heirloom said to be made from the first fallen leaves of the tree back. They were enchanted so that their rainbow of color would never fade over time. It was a gift from the Kiven given to the first ruler of the land. Any reigning leader, elected or inherited, wore it to not only symbolize their leadership, but to also help protect the tree itself. The stronger the sovereign was during their rule, the healthier the Realm tree became.

Bobby bowed, careful not to drop his bag. “My Lady, how can I be of service?”

Empress Lanai motioned for him to follow her to the bed on the opposite side of the room. “My daughter has succumbed to a strange malady,” she intoned. “Farvel was dressing this morning and wanted to invent a new look, as she often does. She rummaged through a trunk of old accessories and came upon that headpiece you see on her head. When she placed it on herself, she had a violent seizure, shaking uncontrollably and babbling rapidly. Ragoshe managed to catch her before she fell to the ground so that she was not harmed, but there she lays.”

Bobby examined the headpiece. It was a peacock feathered fan arranged along a silver headband. The peacock feathers had been magically shrunken so that they would not overwhelm an imp’s person with their original size. Bobby could sense an old magic coming from the silver band. It was a charm that he was not too familiar with, but it felt like he should know it from his family’s reserve of spells. He examined the veins of each feather, seeing the charm woven into their fibers. He tried to lift the headpiece from the princess, knowing full well that someone had probably already tried it before him. Sparks of magic leapt from Farvel’s forehead, pushing Bobby back from the bed.

“Is it safe to assume you have already asked the Kiven for their assistance?” Bobby asked the empress.

“Yes, High Priest Rialta and her protégé Hagar Tempran have examined Farvel,” Empress Lanai replied as she nodded her head. “They say the magic’s secrets lie in the headpiece itself. They could not discern a way to remove it from my daughter without causing more harm. This is why I called you. I was hoping that you would be able to unravel this mystery with your expertise.”  

“Your eminence, you mentioned that your daughter was babbling when she collapsed,” Bobby said as his brow wrinkled in thought. The empress nodded. “Did anyone attempt to record her words?”

Ragoshe came forward with a scroll. “This is a recording scroll. The enchantment allows spoken words to be written upon it. We were hoping it would help. As you can see, though, the symbols do not appear to be from our language.” He handed the scroll to Bobby.

Bobby examined the writing on the scroll. Something about the symbols felt familiar to him. “I have an idea,” he said. “I will need to return to my home to work on something that I hope will help the princess. Please send word to me if you perceive a change in her condition. I assure you that I will put forth all my efforts on this matter.”

Empress Lanai nodded. Officer Ragoshe escorted Bobby to the palace entrance. There he gave Bobby a final word, “Bobby Biscoe, you hold the hope of the realm in your hands. Farvel is the only heir. Do not let us down.”

Bobby could tell that Farvel meant more to Ragoshe than a simple charge. He saw her as part of his own family. Bobby knew that Ragoshe grew up in the palace, trained as a yitto from childhood, much as Bobby had been trained by his family in their headwear crafts. Bobby nodded, promising to put forth his best efforts to find a solution.

As he travelled back to his mushroom home, Bobby thought about the problem before him. Once inside, he immediately went to his workroom where the chapeau for Hagar Tempran lay waiting for completion. Bobby knew that the princess needed an immediate solution to her dilemma, yet the craftsman in him did not wish to disappoint the high priest, so he carefully removed the holding spell on the chapeau and continued to work on the memory charm. He managed to finish the commission before the afternoon turned into evening, just in time for the potency to be at its peak. Then Bobby turned to the scroll with the strange symbols.

As it was a recording scroll, the symbols were the visual generation of the noises made by the princess. This should have made it easier to decipher. Bobby read the scroll, or attempted to, several times. Finally, after breaking for a small evening meal, he lit several candles in his workroom and began to read the symbols aloud, sounding them out as he did when he first learned to read as a youngling. One by one the candles flickered and went out with each word he sounded. Bobby did not notice at first because the scroll glowed brighter with each sound. A wind picked up in the workroom. Bits of fabric and ribbons came off the shelves. Bobby held his chapeau down with one hand while holding the scroll with another. The brightness and the wind grew until he could see no more nor hear anything else. He closed his eyes as the last sound escaped his lips. Bobby felt his body ripped away from the ground, then he neither saw nor hear anything else for a long while.

When he came to, Bobby expected to see his home completely destroyed by the magical whirlwind. He feared the damage might exceed his expectations. When he looked up he saw nothing around him but bare nature. There was no workroom, no mushroom, not even a village anywhere nearby. Instead, Bobby saw a rich golden-green meadow in the shadow of the Realm tree. The sunshine told him that it was close to midmorning. Though there were no imps to be seen, he was surrounded by the melodies of birds and insects. He looked all over himself to make sure that he was still intact. That was when he saw that the recording scroll was clutched, rolled up, in his hand and he was wearing his charmed chapeau and had his travel kit slung across his chest. The Realm tree was behind him, so he decided to make his way toward it in the hope of finding some answers to this riddle.

Upon nearing the Realm tree, Bobby noticed a tiny pair of orange ears attached to a shaggy head of hair popping up from the ground.

“Hello?” Bobby called, “Can you tell me where I am?”

The ears and shaggy head rose slowly to reveal a small female imp of light orange skin. She wore robes that reminded Bobby of the Kiven, but they were different, less ornamented. As he was about to address the imp once more, she held up her hand saying, “You appear to be a stranger to our land, yet you look so much like me. How is that?”

“My name is Bobby Biscoe. I come from a land of the Realm tree. I was looking for a solution to an enchantment that befell our princess when I found myself here.”

The priest imp jumped at Bobby’s name. She seemed to want to vanish into the tree until he mentioned his mission. She addressed him instead, “I did not expect to see a Biscoe here. Even now the last of the family secedes from the rest of us Kiven. Your patriarch gathers the last of his kin to move from the Realm tree. Perhaps you can talk some sense into him.” She motioned for Bobby to follow her. “Come, I am Bella. I will take you to High Priest Koravan.”

They entered a small opening in the Realm tree near the roots. Bobby was overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur inside. No one in his village, not even High Priest Rialta, ever entered the Realm tree. Even if they did, they never spoke of what might be in it. All the imps just assumed that the tree was like any other tree inside, filled with the inner-workings of the plant itself. What lay before him, though, was a living structure more magnificent than the palace. Colored gilding raced all around, ornamenting everything in sight. Bobby saw ornate doors to countless rooms. The main entryway, what he thought of as the Grand Great Hall, was ten times larger and more beautiful than the Great Hall of the palace he knew. And the place felt partially deserted. Instead of yitto marching or standing about, in lieu of numerous aides bustling to and fro on imperial business, Bobby witnessed only a handful of imps dressed in the same Kiven robes of his guide.

Bella directed Bobby to stand by a large decorated door while she announced him to the high priest. He had just enough time to admire the carved scene of a doe giving birth to a fawn when the door opened and a voice beckoned him forward.

“Enter young man,” the deep melodious voice called. “Bella tells me you are a stranger, and yet not a stranger to our lands. Come, sit,” the speaker indicated a chair opposite his. “I am High Priest Koravan of the Kiven. Tell me in your own words what brings you to my presence.”

Bobby bowed before seating himself in the lush cushion of the chair. He told of his hope to help the princess. He told Koravan of his family’s reputation for making magical headwear and the reason the empress called upon him to help her daughter. Finally, he held out the scroll toward the high priest, hoping that he could help him decipher it, since it obviously had a rather powerful magical incantation written upon it.

The high priest listened with great interest to Bobby’s story. He proposed an exchange of services: Bobby would intercede for him with the Biscoe family, trying to keep them from all abandoning the Kiven, and Koravan would work on deciphering the scroll. Bobby asked for one condition; he wanted to keep the original scroll with him, in case his family might be able to help, as the princesses current state was caused by an enchanted headpiece. Koravan consented, asking Bella to first copy the symbols on the scroll and then to accompany Bobby to his family’s patriarch.

Together, Bobby and Bella travelled to a small gathering of mushrooms a distance away from the foot of the Realm tree. There they found a gathering of orange imps with scruffy hair beneath a wide array of hats and bonnets. It was easy to find the patriarch. His deep orange skin contrasted with the bold blue suit he wore. Atop his head was a chapeau, not unlike the one worn by Bobby, but with a large duck feather sticking out of the band. Bobby could tell that it was a duckling’s down feather, as it was almost too large for the small hat, yet it was nature’s size. Any larger feather would have toppled the wearer over once he put it on.

“What ho! Who have we here?” bellowed the patriarch as the pair approached. “Bella Biscoe! I did not expect you to join your family. I believed you were lost to the Kiven. And you’ve brought a friend! Who is this strapping young lad?”

“Rotel, this is Bobby. Bobby Biscoe.” Bella intoned. She didn’t seem pleased to see the patriarch.

“Come, daughter. You know you may call me father or papa. There is no need for formalities among family,” Rotel told her. “And you, young man. You say you are a Biscoe? How is it that I have never seen or heard of you? As patriarch of this small clan, I thought I was privy to all the Biscoe births.”

“Apologies, Patriarch Rotel,” Bobby bowed as he spoke. “I begin to understand something of the mystery which brought me to your Realm tree. I come from a Realm tree as well, a village beneath it to be exact. Our Kiven contend themselves with tending the tree itself while the rest of us have a society to work within. Our empress has tasked me to help her daughter who has fallen under the influence of a very mysterious and powerful charm. My attempts to research it have brought me here.”

Bobby showed the scroll to Rotel, who involuntarily sucked in a breath as he grabbed it. “How is it that you come by this incantation? I have only begun to craft this charm!” Rotel asked in shock.

Bobby explained everything from the morning when his adventures began to that moment. Rotel began to nod and prod, asking clarifying questions as Bobby narrated. At the end of the tale, Rotel sat upon a camp chair outside the nearest mushroom. He looked at his daughter and said, “Bella, you can report to your Kiven high priest that the Biscoes will be conceding the necessity of keeping all imps together, but I have conditions for him. Go, child, and set up a meeting between us within the hour.” Bella raced away to the Realm tree with her message. Rotel turned to Bobby. “Young man, given the intelligent stock from which you come, I take it you have come to some of the same conclusions as myself.”

Bobby nodded, saying, “Yes, Rotel. I gather that the babbling of the princess was a recitation of this charm. When the headdress is worn by a descendent of the Biscoe family, then they need only think the incantation and they will be joined by their nearest kin. However, as the empress and her child are not direct descendants of our family, the charm did not work as it was intended. Instead, she lapsed into a coma, doomed to recite the charm in an unending loop until someone can find a way to free her. Can you help me free her?” Bobby finished.

Rotel thought for a long while. His meeting with High Priest Koravan approached. He insisted that Bobby accompany him to the Realm tree. In the office of the high priest, they were greeted with reserved anticipation. Business would have to come first. Koravan and Rotel negotiated the return of the Biscoe family to the Realm tree. In exchange for their return, the Kiven would no longer require each imp of the tree to serve as part of the priestly caste. If other imps wished to engage in other arts, pursue other endeavors, then they would be free to do so. The Kiven would concentrate their efforts on maintaining the Realm tree. Others could begin to build a society that could support the Kiven and themselves in the shade of the tree. Bobby realized that he was witnessing the beginning of the land that he and many generations before him had taken for granted to always have existed. Once the two leaders were in agreement, they turned to Bobby’s mission.

Without revealing the intricacies of the charm itself, Rotel explained that it was designed to allow his family to find each other whenever they were separated. It appeared that, as time went on and the family became more adept at creating enchanted headwear, one of the family members, Rotel’s descendent and Bobby’s ancestor, decided to place the charm in an elaborate headpiece. This was given to the ruler of the village at the time, who happened to be a Biscoe. It passed down from ruler to ruler, never from parent to child, until it was forgotten in the trunk where Princess Farvel found it. As she did not have the Biscoe blood, she experienced a curse instead of a charm, succeeding only in endlessly repeating the incantation, never being able to use it fully.

“So, what must be done to remove the curse?” Bobby asked Rotel and Koravan.

They looked at Bobby and both responded, “The headpiece must be superseded by another. This will allow the original charm to fade from the princess.”

“But, how am I to remove the headpiece? I was shocked back from her the first time I tried to examine it.” Bobby proclaimed.

“I will fashion a new headpiece, very much like the one the princess wears,” Rotel promised. “It will have a null-spell on it that will allow you to remove the original. Sadly the charm will vanish with it. Take the scroll and keep it safe with you so that the magic will not be lost to our family.”

“Then, there is just one more problem,” Bobby pointed out. “How am I to return to my Realm tree? I understand it is one and the same as yours, but it is in a different time.”

Bella stepped forward. “I can help you with that. You say your chapeau has a memory charm upon it, correct?” Bobby nodded. “And you made one just like it for this Hagar?”

Again, Bobby nodded. “Then,” Bella replied, “I will concoct a bridge incantation. It will connect the two charms together, allowing you to travel to your workroom where the protégé’s gift still lies.”

All the preparations were made. Rotel worked on the headband, Bobby teaching him how to shrink the peacock feathers so they were imp size. Bella worked with Koravan to create the bridge incantation. They then met outside the Realm tree, approximately where Bobby’s mushroom house would be found in his time. A glowing light grew upon Bobby, starting from his chapeau until is encompassed his entire body. A roaring sound also rose from his feet to his chapeau. When the whirlwind died down, he found himself back in his workroom, still wearing his chapeau and carrying his travel kit. Inside his kit was the new headdress.

Back in his own time, Bobby raced toward the palace. The sun had not yet completely risen above the landscape, so there were not too many imps bustling about. Bobby yelled out at the palace doors for Officer Ragoshe, who came rushing to him. "What is it? What is wrong?” the yitto cried out as he let Bobby into the Great Hall.

“I have to see the princess!” Bobby replied breathlessly. “I found her cure!”

They both rushed into the chamber where Princess Farvel still lay, repeating the incantation. Empress Lanai sat at her side, not yet having changed from the gown she wore when Bobby was first ushered into the room. Without hesitation or explanation, Bobby placed the new headdress upon the head of the princess. The old headdress glowed and sparked as it disappeared into nothingness. Farvel yawned and stretched, looking about her in wonderment.

“What is everyone looking at? What is going on?” she asked.

Ragoshe escorted Bobby into the Great Hall as the empress explained the situation to her daughter. After some rejoicing and a ceremony in Bobby’s honor the following day, things returned to normal for Bobby Biscoe. High Priest Rialta picked up the memory charm chapeau for Hagar Tempran, who took her place as High Priest of the Kiven within the following week. Bobby found the best place for the scroll, too, under his own hat, where he never forgot it.

[Copy write Christina Guardino 2014]