Sealing the Ancient Secrets: Emily and Elina's Time-Binding Adventure

The clock chimed as I made my way downstairs. In the empty hall I could see the cathedral-like door that led to the library. It was still dark outside, and I could hear the waves crashing against the shore.

A small green light on the wall near my head glowed softly. I looked over to it and saw a gold sign with an arrow pointing up. The light meant there was someone upstairs in the “guest” room, where my father had been holed up for days now. I figured he was working, but wondered if maybe he couldn’t sleep either.

I walked past the library door and continued into the kitchen, passing one of the castle’s many stone walls that were covered with elaborate carvings depicting various scenes from history. In one of them, a man in medieval armor stood next to a large cannon as it fired across a battlefield filled with soldiers clad in all different colors of clothing; some wore armor while others seemed to wear only tunics and pants. Others still fought bare chested or even naked, their bodies painted in elaborate patterns like those of their enemies.

The house was silent except for the sound of my shoes tapping against the cold stone floor as I walked towards a metal box on the wall that held some of our food rations. On top of it was a bright red button which, upon pressing, would cause a robotic arm mounted on one side of the room to extend outwards and deliver whatever food item you requested from its robotic fingers at the end of its long metal arm. I called out for something simple: “Bread!”

I heard a faint whirring sound followed by clanks as parts moved inside the contraption before a loaf popped out and landed loudly on a small metal platform above me that folded down from within its depths when pressed. A moment later another loaf landed beside it in a similar fashion, then another and another until finally six loaves sat neatly aligned next to each other before me.

I grabbed them all at once and turned back towards the kitchen table where I set them down before walking over to grab two plates from one of the cabinets along one side of the room. As I assembled myself some sandwiches, I started thinking about my dad again. He hadn’t been himself since we had arrived here almost two weeks ago from our old home back on Earth, where we used to live in what they called “California” on an island known as “Hawaii” when it was part of North America but now had become its own continent in what people now call “the Pacific Oceanic Region” or simply just “Pacifica” for short. During that time he had been spending most days locked away in his room researching whatever subject it was he worked on these days: something called “quantum entanglement” that few people seemed to understand despite having been around for decades now.

I wasn’t really sure what quantum entanglement even meant, but apparently it involved finding ways to send messages through space without actually sending anything physical through space...somehow...using some kind of process involving “superposition states” and “basis vectors”...all stuff I didn't really understand very well because even after years studying science while living back on Earth, things like this somehow remained confusing to me no matter how hard I tried to understand them so that one day I might be able to help determine how exactly things worked by figuring out how they worked myself instead of relying on others like everyone else did these days...it all just seemed so pointless sometimes...like why bother trying to figure out anything when everything already seemed so perfectly understood already by everyone else who knew more than me? Like everything is already laid out for you already anyway—no need to try thinking about anything yourself when others have already thought about it for you already! It's all so obvious! Who needs to think about anything when there are people who can just explain things better than you ever could? This way you can just do whatever you want instead of wasting your time trying hard at things you don't understand or care about anyway! You can do whatever you want whenever you want! Everything is easy! Don't worry about understanding things yourself because someone else will always be right there ready to explain it all away for you anyway! Why bother trying if someone else has already done your thinking for you? It's easier this way, right? After all...who cares if you don't understand how anythings works anymore? You can just rely on someone else explaining it all away for you instead! After all...you're not important anyway! You don't need anything more than this!