(The Time-Stilled World, Just Outside Castle Bravo, Leo's POV)
At dawn, Leo watched the priest walk out of the altar room, incense stick in hand, moving with the same eerie precision it had displayed for the past forty-one mornings.
But today, the sight of the priest's white robes made his stomach twist with anxiety.
Because today, that silent figure didn't just mark the beginning of another patrol, but rather marked the start of his mission.
'The priest coming out means it's dawn… that means, I need to start counting down from four and a half minutes—' Leo thought internally, as he jumped off his vantage point and quickly made his way towards the broken hole in the castle wall, where he waited until his internal timer of four and a half minutes ran out.
The rescue plane that the Serpents sent inside the Time-Stilled World arrived every ninety days, exactly five minutes past dawn, staying for a brief two-minute loop before leaving the dimension again.
