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Spin, spin, the clock at the center of the world continues to spin, a wheel spinning out new hours, six, then six, then twelve again and dawn rises as it always does.
No one from the world disturbs its little basement. It's a calm place, filled with gears and water wheels, a little bit outside time, as this is where time is spun.
No one from the world comes here, but it's not currently unoccupied.
"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
– First Day
– 06:33
The shrine in this little cavern is aptly named a fairy fountain, because fairies and water are its centerpieces. Above the central pool, where water flows with no visible source or drain, a group of fairies similar to the one from the Laundry Pool flit in distress.
Their sundered sibling alights and joins them, and with their harmony restored the gestalt regains its customary form.
Though her lively laugh is not, exactly, harmonious.
She can communicate more intimately than face to face, with one such as this spider.
"Your Majesty. I am honored to welcome foreign royalty to my fountain, and indebted for your gracious service."
"...do I look royal to you somehow?"
They've been over this ground before, but perhaps the memories of the smaller part aren't readily accessible to the whole.
"I haven't a kingdom, at any rate. Thank you for informing me about how I appear to you. You may address me as 'lady', if you wish."
"And I count you no debtor, and myself no creditor, and were it so the hospitality of your fountain upon which I so gracelessly intrude, treading threads into your home, would certainly discharge it."
"But I have an interest in the masked miscreant who shattered you, and would hear what you are willing to share, as a colleague."
"My sisters and I were each dispersed by the masked imp, though he assaulted me, in particular, in great haste and the damage was quite limited. Perhaps it was malicious mischief, or perhaps we threaten his designs? The imp is an ancient trickster, though he is an eternal child, and thoughtless as any trickster spirit, but the mask is foreign royalty, as you are, though not the sort I'd wish to admit to my fountain."
"Perhaps you have arrived here in its pursuit, to take it back?"
"Perhaps I have, though it wasn't my own design. But a visitor to another web should follow its threads to reach the center."
"The matter of the moon, however, seems more urgently pressing. Unless the one is wrapped up with the other?"
"Perhaps it developed as you were indisposed, but the moon, or whatever it may be, appears to be falling from the sky. Quite unwillingly, if the look on its face counts for anything."
"I suppose if there's no moon where you're from, it might appear novel. There's an astronomer somewhere nearby, if you want to borrow his telescope for a closer look."
It wouldn't do to let on how alarming this unconcern is, though she does pause for a moment to reassess; nobody's perfect.
"Yes, I had planned to visit him after this. Some charming little children offered to show me the way if I played with them a little. I suppose I shouldn't keep them waiting. Thank you very much for your time and your kind words."
"Allow me to grant you a boon before you leave, lady spider. It's what I customarily do for visitors. Though there's precious little I can offer one such as you, I can grant you the spark that calls fairies, that you may weave it into your thread. I ask only that you not devour any fairies you ensnare, but you seem a gentle spider, quite unlike the cursed ones native to this place."
She couldn't bestow this directly on a mortal; it's closer to a color not made of light than anything, the understanding of which can be given directly to a being like this spider.
"Thank you, gracious fairy. I will treat your kin kindly, in the same spirit with which you grant me this boon."
There are various ways a being called a "fairy" might be, and it's not immediately apparent to one unfamiliar with this world, but even so...
"Were I to call on you in five days' time, would you be receiving visitors?"
"Five days' time? Do you mean in two days' time? I would be pleased to receive you again, and there's no need to make an appointment beforehand."
"Perhaps I will drop in unannounced, then. Do send me away if it happens to be inconvenient. Thank you."
And with that, she leaves the shrine.
The children will have to wait a little longer; it's worth speaking to that guardsman right now.
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