A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,120

Tedros emphasized, holding up the crystal of his mother.

“Because human souls aren’t as reliable as cats’,” said Reaper, still studying crystals. “Humans store their memories, regrets, hopes, and wishes all in the same messy vault. Merlin may have called this a crystal of time. But that was wrong. This is a crystal of mind. The ball is cracked: it no longer shows us objective reality. It shows us reality as perceived by each of our minds. And the human mind is as cracked as this ball, clouded with error and revision. With each crystal, you must try to see clearly and determine what is true and what is illusion.”

Agatha couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So it’s not just time we have to filter, but we also don’t know if these scenes are actually real?”

“Like this monstrosity of a dress,” Sophie said, holding up the crystal with the offending gown. “It could be the past . . . or the future . . . or a false memory like Tedros chasing his mother?”

“Reaper, we can’t find answers when we don’t even know if the answers are true!” Tedros assailed.

The cat finally looked at them. “If it were easy, Merlin and Clarissa would have solved it.”

Agatha looked at Tedros and Sophie. Without saying a word, all three began sifting through crystals.

Most of the scenes Agatha found were from her own life, as if the crystal ball was privileging her soul over the others since she was Dovey’s Second. But a few scenes seemed dodgy: one where she and Tedros were in Reaper’s throne room, with Tedros rifling through Dovey’s bag (that didn’t happen) . . . another where Agatha kneeled in a dark cemetery and laid a flower in front of a headstone marked “THE SNAKE” (that would never happen) . . . and one where she was hugging the bald, decrepit Lady of the Lake (she hadn’t hugged her when she’d gone back to Avalon . . . or had she? She’d been so sleepless and scared. Who knows what she’d done?).

Sophie’s scenes, meanwhile, were rife with mistakes: in Sophie’s memory, she’d saved Tedros in the Trial by Tale (it’d been Agatha), won the Circus of Talents with a beautiful song (it’d been a murderous scream), and slain Evelyn Sader and her wicked blue butterflies (it’d been the School Master). But most of the crystals from Sophie’s past featured Agatha in them, with Sophie again attempting to right wrongs: letting Agatha and Tedros go to the Evers Ball together; holding back the spell that made Tedros mistrust Agatha at the School for Boys; staying with Agatha and Tedros in Avalon instead of going back to Rafal. . . . But whether all these moments were truth or lies (mostly lies), Agatha still found comfort in being as much a part of Sophie’s soul as Sophie was hers.

Tedros’ crystals, on the other hand, tended to reflect scenes of him pranking stewards and nannies, feasting on steak and pheasant, and winning rugby games and swordfights, as if he’d repressed any part of his life that involved real emotion.

“It’d be nice to find one crystal of yours with me in it,” Agatha muttered to him, batting down a scene of her prince and his Everboy friends doing daredevil dives into the Groom Room pool. “The only things your soul is concerned with are meat and sports.”

“You’re one to talk,” said Tedros, rifling through crystals. “All you and Sophie seem to think about is each other.”

“Hold on. Here’s one of Teddy and King Arthur,” said Sophie, pulling down a crystal.

Agatha, Tedros, and Reaper gathered around.

Inside the crystal played a scene of Tedros as a squirmy three-year-old, climbing his father like a tree while King Arthur sat at a desk in his bedchamber, putting a feathered quill to a gold card of parchment. A waning candle dripped red wax onto the edge of the card, splattering it with thick gobs.

“That’s it!” said Tedros, stiffening. “That’s the card from my father’s will! The one he wrote the coronation test on. I remember holding it during the ceremony. It had red wax on it and the same crescent-shaped tear at one of the corners. . . .”

Reaper’s eyes flared. “Agatha, touch the crystal and look inside the center, as if you were trying to activate a new crystal ball. Sophie and Tedros: hold Agatha’s hand. Quickly! This might be the one!”

Agatha felt Tedros, Sophie, and Reaper grab on to her as she gazed directly into the glass