CHAPTER FIVE The Journey Begins.

The next morning was bright and fogless, and thus they prepared and set off for the journey as Lily, Alexander, Emily, and Henry. Loader: ‘There was a tense stillness in the air as they packed their gear into the carriage that awaited them.’ Lily did not help but chuckle at the sight of his temporal resonance detector, which stuck out among the conventional traveling accessories. Finally, as the carriage began to pull out, the sound of horses’ hooves tapping the road along with the rocking of the carriage put Lily at ease, and she began to daydream. She caught herself looking at Alexander from the corner of her eye, her mind wandering back to the conversation they had the previous night on the balcony. They were still not on good terms, and it seemed like the underlying conflict between them was as electric as the events of the story.’ Emily, sharp as ever, observed how secretive and coy Jonathan was with her brother and Lily. She looked at him in surprise then decided to remain silent and allow him to tell her more about his latest inventions. As Vince and his men moved deeper and deeper into the district, far removed from the Harrington estate, the territory gradually changed. People exchanged green-mowed lawns for humps and continued moving through heavily wooded sections. Lily could not believe the simplicity of the countryside he had brought her to; it was completely alien to the advanced world she loved. "We're coming up on the first site," Alexander said as the carriage crested the rise. Below them, a wide and shallow valley spread, bisected by a curving river. At its center, a circle of ancient standing stones stood tall, their weathered surfaces glinting in the midday sun. A gasp stuck Lily's breath in her throat. She recognized this place from her studies: Thornbury Circle, a Neolithic monument that would become the subject of much speculation and research in her own time. An untouched view, not ruined by centuries of tourism and digs, was a historian's dream. Close now to the stone circle, Henry's device began to emit a gentle, pulsating hum, and the inventor's eyes glinted with possibility. "It's working!" he cheered to the world, lifting his detector above his head. "There's definitely something unusual about this place." They alighted from the carriage and came toward the stones, wary but also half-expectant. Entering the circle, Lily felt an odd tingling, an almost electrical excitement, as if the very air within the ring were alive with some form of invisible energy.  "This's incredible," she breathed, stepping closer and then reaching out to run her hand along the cool stone before smiling to herself at the touch. "In my time, there are a thousand theories about places like this, that they are cosmic calendars or gateways to other worlds. But to actually feel something here?" Alex moved to stand by her side, his presence both comforting and electrifying. "What do you think it means?" he asked softly. The soil had all but finished falling into place when Henry's voice broke through once again. "Blow me, will you just get a gander at this?!" Crouched slightly inward from the circle's center, he had been bristling away the century-weathered dirt in smooth sweeps instead of circular brushstrokes and had clearly been successful: the unmistakable features of several long, ancient carvings were just surfacing. When they had come close enough to view the text, Lily's eyes widened with recognition. "These symbols—they're the same as the ones in your grandfather's journal, The full realization of this discovery set in, and the group was silent. Alexander's grandfather hadn't been recording his observations; he was deciphering an ancient code that existed for millennia. With the sun starting to dip toward the horizon, they worked to uncover more of the symbols, which cast very long shadows across the valley. It was then that Emily, who had watched from her vantage point, suddenly called out, "Someone's coming!" They looked up to see a horseman approaching, his outline dark against the setting sun. The man who dismounted from the horse wore clothes that were not really suitable for the Victorian age; they looked uncomfortably like what she had been wearing when she first arrived in this century. His eyes finally came to rest on Lily; in a flicker of his face, he revealed that he had recognized her. "So it's true," he said, his voice low and with just a hint of some accent that Lily couldn't place. "Legend speaks of a woman out of time. I never thought I'd find you." Alexander moved protectively in front of Lily, his hand falling to the pistol at his hip. "Who are you?" he demanded. "And what do you want with Miss Thompson?" The stranger held up his hands in a placating gesture. "My name is Jonathan Blackwood. I'm, well, I suppose you could say I'm a time traveler, like Miss Thompson here. But unlike her, my journey was intentional." The revelation left Lily reeling. "You mean. There are others. People who can travel through time at will?" Jonathan nodded, his expression serious. "A few. We're known as the Chronos Guild. We monitor the timeline, trying to prevent major disruptions. And your arrival here, Miss Thompson, has caused quite a stir." What Jonathan said began to sink in, and with it came a mixture of feelings: excitement at the prospect of answers, fear of what they might mean, and deep, aching sadness that her presence here might mean nothing more than a mistake to be corrected. Alexander's hand found hers, squeezing softly in silent support. The touch grounded her, reminding her that no matter what happened now, she wasn't alone. "I think," Emily said, breaking the fraught silence, "that we have a great deal to discuss. Perhaps we should make camp for the night and then continue this conversation somewhere more comfortable." They were pitching camp in the shadow of the ancient stones when Lily's mind suddenly began to overflow with questions. Who exactly was Jonathan Blackwood? What was his Cronos Guild? And most importantly, what did his arrival mean for her future—or her past? As the fire crackled and the stars started to appear within the darkening sky, Lily realized their journey had taken a turn she could never have anticipated. The mystery of her time travel had suddenly become a great deal more complicated, with implications that stretched far beyond her predicament. She cast an eye over the faces around her: Alexander's bunched determination, Emily's interested curiosity, Henry's contained excitement, and finally, that piece of flatness that was Jonathan Blackwood. Every one of them now had a part to play in a story that stretched back through the centuries, millennia even. As they sat down on what was doubtless going to be a very long and telling night, Lily couldn't shake the feeling that they were on the edge of discovering secrets that would change not only her life, but the very course of history. Whatever happened next, she knew nothing would be the same again.