Marked VI: When the sands don't run out

She grabbed your mother violently by the arm and dragged her off for a private, heated argument. When they were done, your mother emerged even more indignant, defiant... What your grandmother told your mother that day rocked your mother's world. That day your grandmother told your mother she was Tictoc. Marked V

"Alright, back to your mother. That day they argued over what your father thought was studies had nothing to do with academics but your mother's fate.

Angry and flustered, your grandmother screamed at Cebill, 'I've had enough! You can't afford to be the delinquent you've insisted on being. You're TicToc, a hapless but very real circumstance that demands you grow up!'

'I'm a what? Mother, really. What kind of nonsense are you spouting? TicToc!'

'I'm not talking nonsense! On the day of your Passage, while dressing you, I saw it.'

'Saw what, Mother?! Tell me, already.'

'I saw the two veins, thin with 'v' tips, it is the symbol for TicToc which means time will stop, life will be eternal. Eternal life is passed from mother to daughter. Not all daughters are tethered to eternity but a daughter of a TicToc carries the grain. If a child bears the symbol, her Awakening is destined. When time actually stops varies. No one knows what triggers an Awakening. The symbol means only that it will happen.'

"Your mother was stunned but she believed. She remembered seeing the strange marking while bathing once. The day they argued your mother was only seventeen, soon to enter University and chart her future and her mother tells her she has forever, that with that fate comes duty and duty requires training and sacrifice. Some would think eternity was a gift, but Cebill knew differently."

“Really, Phantom. I'm not a child. I ask you about my mother and you tell me a child's story.”

“It's no fairytale, Erronne. It's true. It's why your mother left and why you are here. You are TicToc.”

Every week Thom gives us three words. This week: hapless, trigger, deliquent. Join us.