erstwhile
adjective
*************************************
As he walked down the well-lit hallway, Ben could only take in the ambiance. The place was quite nice. The floor had a carpet with a well-designed pattern of red, gold and silver. The walls were covered with high quality art from a variety of periods and artists. Well maintained potted plants were positioned between the art, giving a wide variety of colors to the place. Really, there were only two things he could complain about.
The first was the ambient sound. It was not music of any kind. It was ticking. Lots of ticking. Like there were hundreds of clocks, all of which were on slightly different tempos. It was quite distracting.
The second problem Ben had with his current location was that he had no idea where he was. He had been going to pick up a few things, but when he opened the door, it led to the hall. He had been walking along the hallway for several minutes now, and he just got more and more confused with each step.
Eventually, the hallway did change. He came across a door in a wall. It was a moderately ornate wooden door, decorated with images of various time pieces. Clocks, sundials, and even the occasional hourglass were all represented. And Ben could tell the ticking was coming from the other side. Seeing that he had nothing better to do, Ben opened it.
The room was massive. So large he could not see the walls, and the one behind him vanished into the distance. The place was filled with massive shelves, each one filled with clocks. The ticking of those countless clocks was nearly deafening. Ben covered his ears in an attempt to save his hearing, but the ticking did not seem to be affected.
Ben turned to leave, but the door had somehow vanished. Ben furiously looked around, running all over the place, but he could not find the way out. Instead, he found something else. A person. He was a man that looked to be in his late 50s or early 60s, and was dressed in a very well-made three-piece suit. The man even had a top hat, a monocle, and even a mustache that seemed made for the outfit. The two looked at each other for a moment. After a few second, the clock ticking grew quieter. It did not go away, but just became tolerable.
“My apologies for the volume. It has been so long since a human came here.” The man said.
“Uh…sure? What…what’s going on? Where is this? Who are you?”
“Ah, so many questions. If there is one thing humans are good for, it is curiosity. Well then, I am called the Clock Keeper. A rather on-the-nose descriptor, if I do say so myself. But yes, that is what I am called. And this place is the Hall of Time. You can guess why.”
“Uh…sure. That tells me remarkably little though.”
“Oh? You have not heard of this place? I suppose I should not be surprised. It has been so long since your people have been here. It seems like your long absence has made you forget about places such as this one. I do miss those days. I can be quite lonely here, even for one such as myself.”
“Wait, people used to come here? I’m guessing this isn’t just some room with a lot of clocks. And…what exactly are you? You look like a normal person.”
“I am indeed not human. You see me as such because you are human. Other races will see me as one of their own. And you are correct, this is indeed not a normal room, nor are these normal clocks. Each one is a moment in time. Eternally preserved here, in this great Hall.”
Ben looked around. They certainly did not look like a “moment in time.” Of course, he did not know what a moment was supposed to look like.
“So, uh, what do I do here? And how do I leave?”
“It is simple. While here, you may view at your leisure any moment in time you wish. You will not go there in truth, so you may only observe. But with all of time at your disposal, it can be quite an adventure. As for how you leave? That is simple. View one of the moments, and the door leading back to your home shall appear. Once it has, all you need to do is step through it.”
“Huh. Handy. So I just, what, pick a clock and…do something with it?”
“Touch it. The moment will appear before you.”
“Great. I do love it when it’s simple. So, can I look into the future with these?”
“I am afraid not. That is a different place. This Hall only preserves the moments that have already past, not those that will come.”
Ben knew it was a bit of a long shot, but he had to ask. And it was not like this was such a bad thing. Being able to directly observe history, even if it was only a snapshot, was very valuable. If he could figure out how to come back here, it could answer a lot of questions. He would ask about that later. But first it was time to get a look at the good old days.
