The Clockwork Temple stood silent at the edge of the world for three whole years. Nothing that happened during those three years could be traced or restored by the time mages. This was undoubtedly the greatest challenge yet for the Monitoring Division of the Investigation Department at the Senate of Sennonia. During those three years, the witch who chased hurricanes was born in the Holy City; two witches of the night fought endlessly in broad daylight; and the Witch of Time vanished without a trace. No one knew where she had gone, yet the world remained under her shadow.
Sepil Solomon had no choice but to recalibrate her course and head for the place where thousands of doors stood, the far shore where twelve stars shone in concert, the place where the sands slanted. There, she met the Witch of Time, Sarah Poincare.
She had clashed with her several times before. Those wild, obsessive eyes were now filled with reason and divine light. She had been purified, and her body had once again been placed under the Clockwork Temple's control.
Sepil understood. That was no longer a witch, but the master of the Clockwork Temple, her primordial mother. She had plucked two eyes from her seventy-three thousand and placed them in the witch's body, where they became the light of reason. This was her deliberate act of lowering herself, meant to end a collective madness that, once begun, could not be stopped.
Sepil hoped she could right the mistakes humanity had made out of fear. But how could she, who knew no fear, bear the sins of humanity born from fear? Before Sepil could learn the answer, she met her own end. In the instant of her death, she understood that witches were not "witches" at all, but moths whose existence could not be defined. Her mother called them tiger moths. They flew to the beginning of time's interruption and began to gnaw, leaving holes behind them.
Her time was gnawed away in the middle. The past vanished, and there was no future.
Sarah Poincare determined that Sepil Solomon had died because she had failed to control the overflow of her emotions. To the most rational force in this world, nostalgia for the past could only make the hands of the clock go awry. Still, she acknowledged Sepil as a great androgynous archmage. She possessed a prophet's humility and a ruler's authority. She was feminine and masculine, just like her name: Sepil Solomon. It carried intuition and mediumship, as well as reason and judgment. Like everyone else, she had simply shrunk back from the face of great happiness and eternal return, and thus failed to transcend the framework of duality and pass through the Gate of Time. As her mother, she would not blame her for that choice.
Because, as Sepil, she already knew she could see fate but not change it. If she was determined to change it, that meant she had already resolved to take responsibility for it.
Actually, she can be with anyone, because she's essentially an asexual giant squid. She could even be with herself. There are twisted feelings and warmth; she interacts differently with different people. I wouldn't call it yuri, but I think the romance is good, so I'm treating it as yuri. Contains a lot of mother-complex and stereotypical portrayals because I'm obsessed with sex.
Although it has a witch-hunt setting, it has absolutely nothing to do with real witch hunts. The characters are pure villains; anyone who wasn't a pure villain was eliminated in the first round. It started out as R18G, and I'm working hard to climb back out of that pit.
Considering the complex, sprawling worldbuilding, if you find it hard to follow, I recommend reading in this order:
[The Strange Tale of Lucia Davide] chapters 1, 2, and 3 ➡️ [I Can Hear My Boss's Thoughts] chapter 2 ➡️ [Transmigrate Through the Gate of Time]
Theme: The temple will remember everything.
