Thessaly

In Tavellin every citizen wears a seal-watch on the wrist. The watch shows the person's balance, and everyone can see it. The queen wears no watch. Her balance is engraved into her crown. And the crown's balance is the city's debt. Tavellin's Clock Queen is not a ruler but a guarantor. If the city cannot pay for a year, that year comes off the queen's remaining years.

Thessaly was the youngest daughter of House Mirandel. She was also the furthest from the throne. In 1236 AS she was seventeen. AS means After Stillness; it is how Devran counts its years. That year she attended a ceremony in Queen Oriane's throne room. Oriane turned to the Pendulum Council and raised her voice: «The count is fa—» Then she stopped. She froze in the middle of her sentence. Her hand was raised, her lips half open. The Council fell silent for a moment. By the city's law, a new guarantor was needed. And House Mirandel had the largest debt.

Thessaly put on the crown that night. The three golden gears that orbit her came that night too. People think the gears are ornaments, but they are not. Each gear is the ledger of a debtor region. Askaran's gear is crimson, Hesperra's is dusk-colored, and Olumre's is green. When Askaran borrows for a campaign, its gear spins faster. When Hesperra misses a payment, its gear grows heavy. Every night Thessaly falls asleep hearing these gears tick inside her head.

On her chest is a great golden gear. A small pendulum beats at its center. This pendulum belongs to her alone. The city's clockmakers gave it to her on her coronation day. They did not tell her what it was. Thessaly worked it out herself. Each swing of the pendulum counts one day. And it counts down. Today, by the pendulum, she has eleven years left. She does not want to count this number. But she cannot stop counting it.

Oriane still stands in the throne room. No one has dared to move her. The Council left her there as a warning. Only one man tends her Stilled body. That man is Torvan, warden of the Rust Prisons. Every morning, in his caged helm, Torvan dusts the hem of Oriane's gown. Some nights Thessaly asks him: does Oriane hear us? Torvan always gives the same answer: «If she does, she is waiting to finish her sentence.»

Thessaly came to the Arena as a guarantor. Every share of Dem she wins comes off the city's debt. Dem is time in solid form in Devran. So the more Thessaly wins, the more of her own years she buys back. But a Clock Queen's power in the Arena has a price too. Her spell, Rewind, turns an ally's wound back a few seconds. Those seconds must come from somewhere. With every Rewind, Thessaly's pendulum ticks one extra time. She gives others time that she does not have.

The Pendulum Council wants other things from her too. There is a girl named Azrieth, exiled from Zahreth. Everyone knows she carries a living storm in her staff. On the Dem Exchange, a bottled storm is worth a city's yearly income. The Council ordered Thessaly to buy the storm. If the girl will not sell, Thessaly must take it by force. Thessaly has not decided yet. In the girl's eyes she sees her own. Both of them carry a burden they did not choose.

There is one more thing. At the heart of the city stands a glass tower. The Great Pendulum swings inside it. For sixty years the Great Pendulum has run one Swing ahead of the Arena. A Swing is a match in the Arena. The clockmakers call this an honor. To them, Tavellin knows time before anyone else. One night, when no one was watching, Thessaly touched the Pendulum's weight. The stone was warm. From deep inside it came a sound like a heartbeat.

On the night of the Skip, Thessaly was in the throne room. The Skip is the moment the Arena stopped for one heartbeat. In that moment the world stood still. And the only person who had stood still for eleven years moved. Oriane's lips closed, and her sentence was finished. Then she was still again. Thessaly heard the word. So did Torvan. Neither has told anyone yet.