Sitting backwards in a chair, Sarah studied the two men frozen in Thomas’s room. Because they were out of sync with the flow of time, neither they nor their clothing could be affected by anything. Everything she needed to know had to be determined by sight alone because it was impossible even to touch them directly. The texture of their hair, the shape of their cheekbones, all the details she needed to copy them would have to be discovered by observation. Luckily, they had been trapped in time with their eyes open so she could see their color. Not hearing their voices, not being able to witness how they moved, would create imperfections in her impersonations, so she wanted to get everything else as exact as possible.

She had spent over an hour practicing the appearances of her targets in front of a mirror. This was all overkill, but she hoped some clues as to their identity might be uncovered. Really, though, she was trying to keep herself distracted so that she wouldn’t worry.

“He’s awake.” Rebecca had walked in.

Without saying anything, Sarah followed her back to the infirmary. Matthew was sitting up a little in bed, some color having returned to his face.

“How are you feeling?” Sarah asked.

Matthew smiled weakly. “Feeling a little better. I remember when I brought Rebecca here to heal you all those years ago. I’m glad she hasn’t lost her touch.”

“I think I’ll go get some rest.” Rebecca sounded a little embarrassed. “Let me know if you need something.” She closed the door behind her on the way out.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes, Sarah. They didn’t rough me up much. Just tied me up.”

“Those injuries weren’t just because you’d been tied up.”

Matthew tried to wave her concern aside. “So I’ve heard that this is your house now. Congratulations. You deserve it. And now you can kick Thomas out.”

“No, I can’t. And you know that.” She was a little annoyed that he was trying to change the subject. “We can talk about all of that later. How did you end up tied to a chair in a basement?”

Matthew sighed. “I had been trying to find some way to convince Thomas to give up his obsession. During the course of that search, I found a few people that seemed to share my concern about misusing temporal magic. I began working with them, but eventually I realized that they had darker plans. When it became clear that they were determined to kill Thomas, I tried to leave. Obviously, that didn’t go as I hoped.”

“That sounds pretty intense. Do you know why they were after him?”

“Unfortunately, no. They never took me fully into their confidence, so I don’t know as much about them as I would like.”

Sarah sat back and started working out some of the implications of Matthew’s story.

Soon, he sunk back down on the bed, his eyes starting to close. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I think I’m more tired than I realized. We’ll have to talk more later.”

At first, she was worried he had succumbed to some injury they had missed, but when she checked, his breathing was strong and steady. She hadn’t really learned anything new. Someone wanted Thomas dead, but she still didn’t know why. Nor did she know who they were. Perhaps Matthew knew, but she hadn’t had time to ask. She hoped he wouldn’t sleep too long.