Chapter 51: Borrowed Time
Hyacinth POV
By the time the council room cleared, my tea had gone cold and my head was buzzing in that specific way it does when you've just agreed to do something enormous and irreversible.
People drifted out in clusters, their voices low, already arguing over details. Dad stopped in the doorway to murmur something to Uncle Remus. Aunt Narcissa gathered papers with Amelia Bones. Henry Clearwater and Serena Zabini bent over a shared schematic, already talking about load tolerances and stress points like they were discussing wallpaper samples instead of the difference between living and drowning.
I stayed seated for a moment, palms flat on the table.
Nobody pushed me for answers or plans. Even Atlantis was quiet.
If I was being honest with myself that helped more than anything else.
"Alright," I said, standing. "Let's figure out how not to break the shields while we bend time."
That got a few tired smiles.
We reconvened in the same room less than an hour later, this time with fewer people and more focus. This wasn't a public council discussion. This was engineering, magic, and risk assessment rolled into one, and everyone knew it.
Henry took the lead, because of course he did.
"The city shield is the only structure large and stable enough to act as a temporal boundary," he said, tapping a projected schematic. "It already regulates pressure, radiation, and energy flow. We can anchor a temporal field to it, but only inward. The shield will speed time up inside the city limits, not the surrounding ocean."
"So that would mean we would be able to speed time up inside Atlantis," I said, "but not outside it."
"Correct," he said. "If we tried to expand the primary shield to include the ocean, we'd destabilize the pressure gradient. Worst case scenario, the shield collapses. Best case, we crush half the city."
"Let's aim for neither of those scenarios happening," Dad said.
Luna, perched sideways in her chair gracefully, tilted her head in that dreamy way she does when she's seeing things. "The fish people won't like being left behind."
"They won't be," I said. "Not if we're careful."
That was where the flight ships that our ancestors used to fly small lading parties into space or close by neighboring planets came in. The ships were resting in the sealed docking bays, their systems dormant but intact. The repository had called them Arkeions, and the name fit. They weren't just ships. They were tools.
We brought up the schematics next.
"An Arkeion can act as a mobile field amplifier," Henry explained. "If we modify one and station it just outside the city shield, it can project a secondary temporal shell. We can hopefully make it a permeable to water, light, and movement, but locked to the same time rate as Atlantis."
"That would be great for the merfolk," I said.
"Yes," he agreed. "They'd be inside the dilation, but not sealed out from the ocean. They can come and go as needed. But this way they can move through time at our rate keeping them in sync with us temporally speaking."
Uncle Newt looked thoughtful. "We'd need to make sure migratory species aren't trapped accidentally."
"We can tune the boundary," Henry said. "Selective anchoring through bloodline coding."
"That's reassuring," Newt said mildly, which usually meant it was not reassuring at all.
"And what about the centaurs?" I asked.
Everyone looked at the planetary projection hovering over the table. Atlantia's landmass was modest but fertile, ringed by shallow seas and star-lit skies.
"They won't want to be inside the temporal field," Luna said calmly. "The stars won't move correctly for them and they crave open spaces."
"I figured as much," I said. "So... I don't think we should try to force them."
Dad nodded. "We can leave them in real time. Set up a settlement topside, with an Arkeion stationed there permanently for transport, medical evacuations, and supplies."
"We do have to make sure that everyone understands the cost," Remus added. "Anyone crossing that boundary will experience time differently."
"Which means every trip top side matters and requires planning," I said. "No casual trips. No popping out for a walk."
"That's going to be hard for some people," Arthur said quietly.
"I know, I have a feeling I'll be one of those who struggle with it. I love flying on my broom and feeling the wind blow through my hair," I said. "But this only works if we commit."
The ratio itself didn't take long to settle. Ten years inside the city's shields to one year outside of them gave us what we needed without pushing the city too hard. Anything more aggressive increased instability curves that Dad, myself and the others didn't like at all.
So the twelve years we have outside the barrier until the visitors walk through our Astria Porta. We will have lived one hundred and twenty years inside it.
That should give us enough time to build a city, raise children, establish our culture, make mistakes, fix them, and still meet the visitors as something more than squatters still trying to make the city their own.
"With that out of the way that brings us to our next issue," Amelia said. "Our population."
"We can't keep pulling people from Earth indefinitely," I said. "And we shouldn't. Once the second wave arrives, that's it. No more mass relocation."
"Who's in the second wave?" Dad asked.
"Professor McGonagall for sure," I said immediately. "She needs to be here. The merfolk clans who agreed to come in the second wave before we left Earth. Any remaining squibs who want to come and some of the international contacts that the Goblins have been talking to. The Goblin Nation has guaranteed that they will vet anyone who they think would do well here with us. After that, we close the door."
"And what about the magical creatures?" Newt asked.
"They can come anytime," I said. "Individually or in groups, if they choose. Earth as a whole is becoming increasingly difficult for them to survive, due to the muggle population growing at an alarming rate. At least here we have a way to provide them a safe haven."
Luna smiled faintly. "New stories will be born here."
"That is the hope and exactly what we planned for Luna," I said. "And with us all working together we can make this planet a magical place."
No one argued because who in their right mind would.
The final decision came quietly.
Henry and Serena would design the temporal integration. Flitwick and Snape would reinforce it magically. The goblins would audit the system for stability and sabotage risks. While the Arkeion modification would begin immediately.
And then, when everything was ready, we would flip the switch.
It might not happen today or tomorrow, but it would happen soon.
After the meeting broke apart, I stepped out onto the mezzanine balcony alone. The gate room was just below me, the lights were steady, the corridors were alive with motion. I just stood there for a long moment and watched everyone. Some of them I knew, some of them I didn't but I knew one things for sure, we were all in this for a reason. We were building something grand while at the same time leaving behind a past that had hurt us all in some way.
Atlantis hummed in the back of my head as if she was agreeing with me.
"Alright," I murmured. "Lets get this party started. We've got a lot of work to do."