The Fifth Healer

83.

"He'll never let us out," Ainsley says, grabbing my arm. "It's a lie."

"It seems like our only option," I say.

"It's wrong, and you know it," says Ainsley. "I'll stay down here with you. We will be together."

I look at her sadly.

"I can't allow you to suffer like that," I say.

"Then we destroy the watch and kill ourselves before noon tomorrow," she says.

"Oh, sorry, one thing I should note," says Papas. "Syncopathic objects are virtually indestructible. Try and kill yourselves, and I'll just come in and use the watch to bring you back from the brink."

"We can't give it to him, Niko," she says, her voice cracking. "Please! We can stay in here. We can be brave, together."

The despair I see in her eyes is almost enough to stop me from going through with it.

"Just answer one thing, Papas," I say. "How did you know I had the watch?"

"I didn't, not until you used it today. After your parents' unfortunate demise, I thought the watch had been lost forever. What a tragedy that would've been. The last remaining Syncopathic device gone forever. But then rumors swirled that the Sterlings had sired an heir, naturally, a Chronosome. Which made me wonder if perhaps the horologe had been hidden away with this child. Knowing you'd turn seventeen this year, I sent Dr. Khan to search for Fifths with a particular set of characteristics."

"White hair, you mean?" I ask. "A Chronosome."

"Indeed," says Papas. "But also, this peculiar tendency to lose consciousness."

"That's not a normal chronopathic trait?" asks Ainsley.

"Oh no, my dear child, it's not. You must have noticed the standard trials tested for everything else-the chronosense, the permsomnia, the general aptitude for medicine and wayfinding-because that facility was constructed long ago to look for the normal traits of a Chronopath. But we knew the son of House Sterling was different. We knew you'd be prone to fainting. Also known as syncope. Hence the name, syncopathy."

"But how could you know that?" asks Ainsley.

"Because, my dear, temporal magic must always come at a time cost. Nothing in this world is free, you see. Chronopathy at the Tower of the Winds is powered by the collective time the Fourths loose while sleeping. We collect the sleep-"

"Yeah, we know. We read the oath," says Ainsley. "And we did the whole tour with Dr. Pretorius. Kind of a tourist trap, if you ask me."

"This horologe," says Papas, ignoring her, "by contrast, exacts a time cost from the chronopath themselves. By subtracting a portion of their mortal lives in proportion to the magnitude of the healing being performed. A powerful source of time energy, unconsciousness-temporarily stealing all that makes you in your mind and body."

"You mean all the times we've passed out..." says Ainsley.

"Were to power the healing you conducted today, yes," says Papas.

"But, retroactively?" says Ainsley. "What if we hadn't come back and done those healings today? We have already paid the price."

"Are you not a Fifth, child?" says Papas, growing impatient. "That temporal paradox only exists from the linear perspective of a Fourth. I would think Dr. Khan would've trained you better."

It hits me. "That's why you blew up the stadium."

He nods. "Unfortunate to have to create a mass casualty event for the greater good, but necessary after all four of you disappeared from the Kastro. I had actually assumed it was Niles. He evidently confessed to having the hair since birth. At any rate, I knew it was one of you. I had to draw out the watch's owner and force them to reveal themselves. So...boom."