CHAPTER FIFTEEN Threads of Destiny

The temporal prison surrounded them, visible only as a hazy glow, with its semi-translucent wall glowing eerily. Lily walked up and down the small cell, imagining different scenarios about how she could get out of this place. Alex was seated off to the side, cross-legged, and had his eyes shut tightly, as if in deep meditation. Emily and Jonathan crouched side by side, their breath quick and shivering, as they attempted to decipher the complex equipment within their grasp. Since they were arrested in ancient Rome, it has been three days. It had been the Temporal Preservation Agency that had snatched them both and brought them to this place beyond time—a place in which the traditional laws of physics appeared to be inoperative. ‘There has to be a way out,’ Lily whispered and said it again, not to her friends but to herself. Can we just remain inactive and watch as reality deploys itself right in front of our eyes?  Alexander’s eyelids fluttered shut, and a soft smile formed on h