Tiemalilla ~ Damsel of Destiny
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The Time Maiden

Tiemalilla
The Lively Hands of an Old Clock

Conspectus

Seconds pass unnoticed with every beat of our heart, without realizing it, we end up begging for more hours, days, months, years. In a way, we despise that which prevents our life from being just a photograph. But why should time care about our problems? This immutable force continues on its way without regard for what happens to time travelers.

In the face of this terrible indifference, the Time Maiden has a few words to say, visiting those who need her help, under one promise: Not to forget the beauty of each moment and to enjoy the passing of each day. It may not be able to solve all our problems, or it may even make the situation worse, but in the end, we are the ones who decide to spend it with every action.

Illustration

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As you feel time go by throughout your whole life, someday you will come to wonder if every second was worth it.

Knowledge

Traits: The Time Maiden has the appearance of a young lady of short stature, with hair formed by the finest bronze filaments. She dresses in a pompous manner with an extraordinary number of dresses in accordance with each era in which she appears, covering her entire body without exposing a single part of her skin.12. She wears a mask featuring elements of analog clocks, although those who can freely travel to the future have commented that the appearance of her mask changes drastically to a more digital style. She always carries three clock hands: the hour hand, which is used as an umbrella, while the minute hand serves as a cane; she has rarely been seen using the second hand, but it is known to be wielded as a dagger.

Nature: Tiemalilla is a woman highly linked with the concept of time, being thus able to travel freely between the different eras of the universe; although she usually stays only on Earth from the 18th to the 23rd century, intervening randomly with specific people or groups of people. The Time Maiden also has the ability to bend time at will, giving her the ability to turn back, stop or speed up time for herself or other objects. She is thought to have used this power to stop her aging, while others say it is part of the sacrifice to obtain her abilities.

She must perform a series of movements with her clock hands to generate major changes in the events from the past or future. The further away from the present, the more movements she needs to complete. She has a personal preference to coordinate her movements in the manner of a "jeringonza dance"; however, in cases of absolute necessity she can skip these steps by breaking one of her clock hands. After each dance, the clock hands begin to wear down and cracks appear until they break.

To get new clock hands, she must reach a location known as the Clockmaker's Forest, habitat of the Petal Bushes and Time Fruits. The Maiden plants one of the fruits throughout history and has never been seen to speed up the process. The resulting tree is indistinguishable from a common one. Tiemalilla will cut down the tree with the clock hands that are still complete and will take an indeterminate amount of time to obtain another clock hand, to other people it seems that she is able to do the whole process in an instant due to her abilities, although she has said several times that this is not the case. The remains of the worn clock hands always return to the Clockmaker's Forest, contributing to a cycle for the growth of more bushes and other types of flora.

Tiemalilla2.jpg

A painting made by someone who interacted with Tiemalilla.

History & Associated Parties: Legends say that between the sixteenth and eighteenth century Tiemalilla was born,3 a young traveler who wandered the world with her family. Her travels were not a simple whim, as they sought knowledge of different beings and extraordinary places, and on one of those trips her father got her a small magic pocket watch, allowing her to see what could be if she changed any event in her life. The years passed, her parents left the world due to the natural cycle of life and she continued to explore, never forgetting all the possibilities that watch had shown her.

She spent most of her life happily, pondering for many years on the meaning of every decision she made, loving all the extraordinary hours and mourning the dreary days. When her body no longer allowed her to continue discovering the world, she devoted herself to writing about what she had learned about time, though she took a more poetic than scientific approach, but you could find a bit of the latter scattered among her stories, which she told to her children every night.

And just like her parents, the time of her death was approaching, as the watch stopped showing her visions after a specific day. She outlived her husband, and her children had already begun their own lives, so she set sail on her presumed last voyage with no sorrow in her being, happily bidding farewell to her progeny. She took her watch and her books, never to be seen again as the woman she was in life. It is said that she found her way to the Clockmaker's Forest using the watch her father had given her, others mention that time itself fell in love with the woman, not for coveting it, but for understanding it. Regardless of her whereabouts, once she set foot in the world again, she was already the Time Maiden.

Tiemalilla has been active in different events, usually involving lone individuals and not entire groups. The repercussions of her actions do not usually alter major events, with extraordinary exceptions that could endanger time itself. She does not act as a servant, but continues to travel in her own way and, from time to time, gives people a second chance to appreciate the meaning of life once again. Since the end of the 20th century and beyond, she has been pursued by the Jailors and the Book Burners, though with little to no success.

Approach: Tiemalilla is friendly and cordial when meeting people, there is no danger in meeting her. If you meet her and time has stopped, except between the two of you, it is recommended to listen to her carefully. In the event that she proposes an opportunity to change an event in your life, it is best to decline the offer respectfully, unless it is a life or death situation. In such a scenario, do not seek to change an event for your own benefit and to the detriment of others, as this will always end up causing you an even bigger problem.

Do not try to seek her out for information about how to manipulate time, any attempt to coerce her will be futile due to her capabilities. She may not try to harm you right away, but depending on how serious your act was, she will retaliate immediately. Instead, you can try to meet her to talk about past events as anecdotes or to pass the time.

Observations & Stories

I was in the middle of the battlefield, taking cover in a trench as I heard round after round of ammunition being fired. Shouts and orders from my fellow soldiers. I was in charge of holding up the magical protective barrier to prevent surprise attacks inside our lines of defense. We were in what should have been the decisive battle in the course of the war. We had in our possession the most advanced weaponry in the world at the time, a kind of ritual to invoke the force of external dimensions into the bodies of our soldiers. It was a suicidal mission for everyone, but it would be worth it, or so I thought. I was not fighting for a cause, nor for blind orders, but for the family I had to protect.

I don't know exactly what happened, at first I thought they had managed to break through our defenses. I myself verified that this was partially true, some crystals were embedded in my right leg, emblematic weapons of our enemies. But everything had stopped, drops of blood suspended in the air, limbs about to be detached and clouds of dust that were about to rise. And there she was, looking somewhat mechanical, in a metallic dress with such a strange mask. Was this the enemy's trump card? I thought, then watched as she kept walking with a pointed cane, approaching me, ignoring the bodies mutilated by the explosion.

She placed that cane on top of my injured leg and I saw not only how the crystal was detached from my skin, but also how all the spilled blood returned to my leg, without feeling any pain. She extended her hand, which was covered by long black gloves, and helped me to my feet, I was still confused by her presence, keeping my guard up in case it was some illusion or spell. She spoke to me, I can't quite describe her voice, a strange mix of depth and sweetness. She introduced herself under the name of Tiemalilla. I asked her if it was some project of ours to end the war. She told me that she would never be interested in fighting this way and, in fact, it caused a great emptiness in her heart. At that moment she asked me if I felt the same way. I didn't know how to answer her, so I told her it was the only way.

She replied with less pleasantness that it was the only way to get closer to the precipice of our lives. It was really horrible what was going to happen that day if she didn't intervene. I tried to ask her who would win. No one, she replied. She turned around and spoke to me again "don't let the seconds bleed on your fingers, or those of your children". Then I watched as she pulled out another pointy stick, smaller than her cane, and began to dance in the center of the field. Everything moved backwards in a dark whirlwind, which eventually caught up with me and I woke up in my bed at home.

I know everyone would tell me it was a dream. I thought the same thing at some point. I knew people with vast experience in that field and they verified my anecdote, it had all been real. When I woke up, my nation had never been divided and our opponents were part of our society. The war had never started. I went through the shelves of my home, I still had blueprints of weapons and war rituals, I always felt that I had to prepare myself for the worst. Then I remembered the words of that woman, and I decided to stop following that path.

Mr. Thelma, former General of the Greek Occult Army, current painter and architect.


I cannot express everything I lost because of her. I had the life of my dreams, experienced the indescribable like the sensation of sailing on the sandy seas in the Middle East, living in palaces reserved only for gods, feeling thousands of lives in sighs. And then she came, when I was lying on the floor of a temple, about to be executed by a group of priestesses and envious men working in the name of "justice". Looking at her elaborate attire, I thought she was one of my lovers rescuing me, instead I met this wretched lady. She healed my wounds. I took the opportunity to get up and try to hit her, without any luck. Not because of a failure in my skill, mind you, but she really knew how to move to evade me.

Who could this woman be? There was a wide range of possibilities, spiteful groups, vengeful families, even some demi-gods had put a price on my head, the highest in the whole world! Anyway, it didn't matter how hard I tried to attack her. I grabbed a gun and tried to shoot her several times, but the bullets never left the gun. And I must give her a pinch of respect, she managed to calm me down with a talk. Or so I made her think, as we quickly moved on to business, a deal where I would get out of the situation and she would be gone from my sight forever.

The woman interrogated me with a lot of questions, confusing me because she seemed to know every move I had ever made, especially the thefts. She tried to lecture me to leave that life and all the possibilities I had if I chose another path. So as not to ruin this opportunity, I played along. Then she made some ostentatious moves with her wooden sticks and thus closed our deal.

It didn't seem like a bad deal at all. As soon as I was able to look at my surroundings, I was in a nursing home, I was a decrepit and senile old man. I tried to stand up, realizing that my body wasn't even good for that now. I tried to remember my life, finding my memory totally changed, my extravagances replaced with a boring job, my dozens of lovers transformed into a wife who left me; to make it worse, every month I received letters from children I never had. I… I could have been one of the greatest legends of my century, remaining in immortality as an ideal, a perpetual message. If I had known what was going to happen, I would rather have died that day.

In the end, an organization of mad scientists kidnapped me, they rummaged through every nook and cranny of my mind, especially regarding the cause of my greatest misfortune. I gave them every detail in the hope that perhaps they would find her and lock her up to rot like me. I have no idea if they succeeded, but I will die with the satisfaction that, thanks to me, they are closer to finding her.4

Mr. Tzefira, self-proclaimed Great Thief of the Eastern Empire5

Doubt

It is not known to what extent it acts on its own or by the rules of the Clockmaker's Forest, acting irregularly and erratically. It is also not known how much it has changed human history or if it has altered other events outside of Earth. Some indicate that she may be affiliated with the Jailors, or at least is not against them,67 since she could theoretically eradicate them with ease. Still, her actions reflect a sense of protection and care for the world she inhabits, though what is her ultimate goal? What will she do when humanity leaves Earth? To what extent do her intentions reflect the will of time?

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We claim to have seen her sometimes, has it really been her or is it a variant of herself?

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