'What does that mean,' Aelara said.
They were in a side room off the main hall stone walls, low ceiling, a fire that had been burning before they arrived. The robed figures had withdrawn. Mira sat across from Aelara, Seraphine in the corner doing her particular kind of stillness, the one that meant she already knew the answer and was waiting for the conversation to reach it.
'The founders built time into the Temple as a function,' Seraphine said. 'Not an accident. They understood that power cannot be trained properly under real-world pressure there simply isn't enough time in a normal life to do it right. So they built a space where time moves at a different rate to the outside world.'
Aelara looked at her. 'How different.'
'Three years inside. Roughly eight months out there.'
The number sat in the room and nobody rushed to fill the space around it.
'So the twins will age three years for every eight months that pass outside.'
