Page 5 - JFP_TEMP_FPGS.indd

RYANDALTON

“Actually, it was your command to wait that made this pos-
sible,” Malcolm added. “Regeneration Day gave us the key.”
“Explain,” said Queen Meliora.
“We could never locate the Frost Hammer. We tracked
every lead, but still couldn’t ‹gure out where she was attacking
from. Time £owed oddly near our town’s power plant, but for
all we knew, that was natural.”
“Until today, when Everwatch reverted,” Valentine took
over. “On a bigger scale, it was the exact same feeling. The Frost
Hammer must have created a short loop around the power plant,
and has been operating from inside it.”
“Which explains why we could never ‹nd her,” Malcolm
said. “We looked in the right place, but not the right day.”
“How certain are you?” King Jerrik asked.
“Very,” Valentine said. “The more she’s able to repeat that
loop, the longer she has to prepare. We can’t let her have more
time.”
“We also think there’s a way to get around her block on our
powers,” Malcolm said.
He gestured to Asha. Reaching into her robe, she pulled a
nexus from each pocket and held them up for all to see.
“The Frost Hammer can block a nexus from drawing power
from the timeline,” Malcolm continued. “So, what if we took
the power from ourselves instead? Use a Second-sev nexus to
leverage our own Time? The e¢ects wouldn’t be permanent,
after all. As soon as we could access the timeline again, we would
replenish.”
“In light of all this, we’ve come here to ask you again,”
Valentine said. “Please help us. We can’t do it alone.”
The king and queen examined them for a long moment, then

358

JFP_TEMP_FPGS.indd 358 2/25/17 6:17 PM