A Resolution

"You ATE his daughter?"

Jaleesa glared at him. "No, I did not eat his daughter. I said I have his daughter. She is very much alive."

"Then where is she?"

Jaleesa stepped aside, revealing the room that was behind her. Lubic and Azalyn saw the massive ruby, prominently displayed on a pedestal in the centre. A figure dressed in khakis and a safari hat was cowering behind the pedestal. And beside the figure, the air seemed to be caught in light; it shimmered, vaguely suggesting a humanoid figure.

The witch pointed a slender finger at the ruby. "Her soul is safely kept in the gem. That is how she has stayed alive all these years. She is not immortal."

"But if her soul is there, then where is her body?"

"I did not eat her body, if that is what you are really asking me. I magically animated her body. There was no sense in having it lying around, cluttering up space. So her body does the menial work around here. I find it a very beneficial arrangement."

"Look everyone, as fascinating as this is, I’d really like to get out of here," Azalyn spoke up. "So Lubic, if you wouldn’t mind hurrying things up a bit?"

Lubic grinned sheepishly. "The only question I really wanted answered was ‘who is Jared?’"

Both women glared at him. "Then why is time still stopped?" Jaleesa demanded.

"How should I know?"

"Alright Lubic, then why don’t you just finish up this business here, and then hopefully time will sort itself out," Azalyn told him.

"Oh, like the witch. How should I do that?"

"Just tell her how things are going to be from now on. Make it a law."

"Hello? I can hear you two. I am still here!" Jaleesa said angrily.

"A law? What do you mean?" Lubic asked, ignoring her.

"Whatever you did to stop time, try to do that again. But this time speaking about the witch."

Lubic turned directly to face Jaleesa. "Don’t eat anyone anymore."

"Lubic! Try to put a bit more thought and energy into it!" Azalyn rolled her eyes. "We’re going to be here for a long time!" she muttered.

"Alright," he frowned. "Ummm, Jaleesa, you -"

"Before you say anything," Jaleesa cut him off, "Perhaps we can make a deal of some kind! Do not kill me! I can help you!"

"Well, how can you help me?"

"I know how to divine almost anything. Whenever you need some information about a situation or a being, you can come to me, and I will get it for you!"

"Lubic, be careful!" Azalyn cautioned.

"Alright Jaleesa, I think I can live with that. You’re help whenever I need it, and I let you live. Not that I wanted to kill anyone," he shook his head. "So from this . . . moment forward, you will not eat the souls of anything ever again! "

"But how will I practice my magic then?" Jaleesa protested.

"You need to eat souls to get magic powers?"

"Yes!"

"Well then, you will not eat the souls of anything ever again, but you shall retain whatever magic you have to this point. And your immortality, I guess. Is that okay?" he asked, turning back to Azalyn.

Azalyn felt the telltale shiver; the universe had a new law. "Well Lubic, she’s your witch. You have to deal with her as you see fit."

"Oh, that reminds me," he turned back to Jaleesa. "And you will not be able to interact with anyone I care about ever again. I’m not having you pull something over me like you did Jared."

"That sounds good to me," Azalyn agreed.

"And you will release Jared’s daughter, to return to whatever family she may have left. And that other guy in the room, he is to return to his family as well." With that, the ruby shattered into a million pieces, and the figure vanished.

"So now, what about the time stop?"

"Oh yeah, the time - " Lubic began to say as he himself vanished.

Explanations

“What do you mean I just halted time?”

“Do you mean to tell me,” Jaleesa began slowly, “that you did not mean for this to happen?”

“Alright!” Lubic threw his arms up to the heavens. “This dream is getting way too weird! I want to wake up!”

“Lubic,” Azalyn began wearily, “this is not a dream.”

“But if time has stopped, like you two say it has, then why are we all able to move?”

“I think it is the way you did it. You said no one was going anywhere, but you wanted answers from us. So we’re stuck in this with you, until you get your answers.”

“So, if that is correct,” Jaleesa said thoughtfully, “then this will end once his questions are satisfied?”

“Yes. So Lubic, start asking!”

“Am I the only one who thinks that this is weird?”

“Lubic! Can you please try to be serious?” Azalyn groaned.

“I am being serious! You’re the one who told me this isn’t a dream! But here we are, ‘magically’ in Africa, looking at a floating knife and discussing how I stopped time somehow. What the hell am I supposed to think?”

“Lubic, this isn’t helping!”

“And why the hell do you still look half fish, but everyone else doesn’t seem bothered by this?”

“You’re half fish?” Jaleesa turned to regard Azalyn curiously.

Azalyn felt her cheeks blazing. “Lubic, I told you, I'm an Imezzan! You’re the one who made it so everyone else sees me as a normal human!”

“Hey, and how come you speak English if this isn’t a dream?”

“I believe I can answer that,” the witch began. “Jared once explained to me that there was a law enacted in the aftermath of an ancient war between several races. This was from before even my time, and I am one of the first true humans to gain sentient life. The law states that Starlords and Spacelords can understand every sentient being. The ancients wanted violence to be the last resort for inter-planetary conflicts.”

“Alright witch, so who is Jared?”

“My name is Jaleesa, not witch,” Jaleesa regarded him coldly. “Jared is the Starlord of the humans on Earth.”

“You mean was,” Azalyn corrected. “Lubic is the Spacelord. There cannot be both.”

“I’m not a Spacelord!”

“So that is why I have not seen him in such a long time,” Jaleesa mused sadly. “He normally comes to visit me quite often.”

“Why would the old Starlord visit a witch who eats people?” Lubic asked suspiciously.

“I do not just eat people,” Jaleesa snapped. “It is their souls that I consume. Silver is the mirror to the soul, connecting the physical and astral bodies. By twisting it slightly, I created a dagger that could both sever that connection and hold the soul until I could consume it.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“No, but it answered what could have been another one. The old Starlord came to visit me because first of all, I am one of his people. Yes, I eat souls. But I am still a human.” She smiled wickedly. “Of course, the more important reason is that I have his daughter.”

Time

"Ummm, Lubic, I think we have something more important to worry about right now," Azalyn said, tapping him on the shoulder. He spun around to see the witch standing in front of a doorway, the wicked gleam of metal in her hand.

"Oh, right. The witch," he said. "You! Witch! Drop your weapon!"

The witch stared at the two of them, a frown darkening her features, her left hand on her hip. "How did you two get in here?"

"Azalyn, next time I dream about you, remind me to also dream about having a gun handy," Lubic whispered.

Azalyn turned to glare at him once again before turning back to the witch. "We are here to stop you from hurting anyone!"

The witch continued to frown, but after a moment a ravishing smile broke out across her face. "Oh, you must be sent by Jared! Is he here?" she turned to look beyond them into the hall. "Jared? Jared, show yourself!"

Lubic and Azalyn exchanged confused glances. "Who is Jared?" Lubic finally asked.

"Jared did not send us," Azalyn affirmed. "We came of our own accord."

"If Jared did not send you, why would you come here now?" Jaleesa asked, confusion clouding her face.

"Who is Jared?" Lubic asked again, a little more loudly.

"We are here to stop you from hurting anyone!" Azalyn asserted again.

"And what makes you think you can stop me?" Jaleesa asked darkly.

"That is our job!"

"If anyone were to stop me, it would be Jared. Not a child like you."

"Jared is not here, is he? We are! And we are not children! We can and will stop you!"

"Believe me, you are children in the grand scheme of the universe. I have been here since before even the mighty Jared was born, " Jaleesa declared, her eyes narrowing. "And how exactly did you two get in here, anyway?"

"He," Azalyn gestured at Lubic, "brought us to the source of the dreams: you."

"And just how exactly were you planning on stopping me?"

"Alright!" Lubic interrupted. "No one’s going anywhere until I get some answers!"

And then the universe stopped.

"Oh my!" Jaleesa dropped her knife. Or she would have dropped it, except it hung motionless in the air, the silver blade still gleaming, in the exact position it was in before time stopped. After staring at the knife in amazement, she turned to regard Lubic, a look of horror rapidly spreading across her features. "Jared could not do what you just did!"

"Oh, the Timekeeper’s going to have a field day with this!" Azalyn muttered.

Lubic looked at them, now even more confused than he had been. "What? What did I do?"

"Lubic," Azalyn whispered, "you just halted time."