Hall

The two of them got up and left the office, and Allen even gently pulled the door shut behind them. They went straight to the circular room they had passed earlier. As the door to the circular room closed, the round walls began spinning rapidly.

The first place they entered was the Time Chamber. Diamond-like, leaping flashes of light glittered inside the room. Clocks could be found on every surface, in all shapes and sizes—some great grandfather clocks, some travel clocks, either hanging between bookshelves or standing on a table as long as the entire room.

Because of that, a hurried, endless ticking filled the whole room, like the neat footsteps of thousands upon thousands of tiny marching feet. The brilliant, diamond-bright, dancing light came from a tall, bell-shaped crystal-glass cover standing at the far end of the room. It was as tall as a fifth- or sixth-year student, stood on a table, and looked as though it was filled with a churning, glittering current of air.

Inside the cover, a tiny, jewel-bright object floated up and down. The object was a small hummingbird, but it was not always a bird. At the bottom of its cycle, the bird was inside its egg. When it rose inside the glass cover, the egg cracked open with a snap, and a hummingbird emerged, rising straight to the very top of the cover. But as the air current fell, the little bird's feathers became soiled and soaked once more, until it landed at the very bottom of the glass cover and was shut back into the egg again. This process of time repeated endlessly inside the cover.

There was a cupboard with a glass front, and the wall where the cupboard stood was covered with all kinds of hourglasses—this was also where the