The Wayfarer Way Station

After running and dodging, most of the party managed to fight their way through the cave and enter the large room Pandora resided in. They looked around the large room in awe until they were greeted. "Hello." Pandora bowed her head in greeting. "I have been waiting for you."
"Why? And who are you?" Sage asked with narrow eyes.
"My name is Pandora and I am the guardian of this place." She swept her hand around. "As for your first question, the young lady Nokomis informed me of your arrival."
"Where is she?"
Pandora gestured to the alter. "She has been waiting a long time for you." Chezza and Sage both raced to the alter only to be blocked by an invisible force field.
"What the hell is going on?" Sage barked with glowing eyes.
"What's happening?" Aron asked with annoyance coloring his words.
"Seems Noko got herself in a bit on a predicament." Dakota replied as he looked at the sleeping girl.
"What's that suppose to mean?" The older man snapped.
"Noko is sleeping on an alter that has some kind of protective barrier around it." Chezza informed placing her hand flat on the barrier that started singeing her palm. Aron started growling.
"I repeat what is going on?" Sage started stalking over to Pandora.
"You are at the center of Time and my box has been stolen." Pandora began.
"As in Pandora's Box?" Chezza asked.
"Yes. When it was first created, it held all the bads of humanity and hope. Now it holds Time together so it does not unravel. However, years ago it was stolen and broken into pieces." She turned and retrieved a part of the Box. "I have one piece here, but the rest I do not."
"What does this have to do with Noko?" Chezza asked, fed up with the story.
"Without the box Time unravels, that is why you have seen time rifts on your journey. One pulled Nokomis in moments ago and soon after her body appeared there. She arrived when the box was first stolen and pursued the man who had taken it. She reappeared two days later through a time rift almost all frozen and dying." The room held their breath as the woman finished. "She became the new Pandora's Box until the original one is returned." She looked sadly at the young woman. "She is in a lot of pain."
"How do you know? She looks peaceful." Rhyme saw nothing that indicated otherwise.
"She has all of Time coursing through her. She is the one making sure it does not unravel and has been for years. Also," Pandora cut of as Nokomis arched her back and silently screamed. Her eyes snapped open and instead of green irises, her whole eye glowed silver light. "She wakes on occasion. It can last from half an hour to hours and there is nothing I can do."
"Why did you agree to this?" Aron snarled.
"Because if she did not, then we would be on the verge of never existing and being pulled apart slowly by our own timelines. Also, her sacrifice is keeping her alive. I was not exaggerating when I said she was almost dead when she arrived back in this chamber."
"How do we help her now?" Sage asked as he placed a hand on his Omega's shoulders.
"Find the missing pieces and place the Box back on the pedestal. Nokomis left a message for you." Pandora pointed near the pedestal and the group walked over to it.
HI EVERYONE. YOU HAVE THE FIRST PIECE, THAT IS IF PANDORA STILL HAS IT AND IF I'M RIGHT ARON HAS THE SECOND. HAND HIM THE FIRST, IT SHOULD JOG HIS MEMORY. THE LAST IS IN RUSSIA IN A SMALL TOWN THAT PROBABLY NO LONGER EXISTS. DO SOME DIGGING, HERE IS A PAPER FROM THE PLACE. FIND IT FAST, I'M ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING STUPID. I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT.
"Aron, why haven't you told us you have a piece of Pandora's Box?" Dakota glared at the blind man.
Aron scowled, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Noko thinks you have the second piece."
"Dakota stop. Pandora, pass the object to Aron please." Pandora placed the medium size metal into Aron's hands and backed away.
Aron scrunched in face as he felt familiar markings. "Hold on." He placed the piece down and dug through his oversize bag. Few minutes later his fingers wrapped around an object he kept buried but always on him. "Is this what we are looking for?"
Sage plucked it from his grasp and locked it onto the other piece. "Yes. Where did you get it?"
"My father told me that no matter what we had to protect it. Never told me what it was."
"Thank the gods you have it. Pandora, can you watch over this while we're gone?"
"Yes." She replied with a bow.
"Thank you. Is there a way for you to help us get to Russia without us having to walk over a month to get to the closest Fey village?"
"Yes, but you will have to find a way back here."
"We can do that."
Pandora opened up a rift, "Hurry, the longer it is open the more problems I am creating." The party quickly ran through and once the last was thrown into snow, the rift closed behind them.
"Let's never do that again." Rhyme shifted onto his back. "That is worse than portaling."
"How the hell was that worse than using a portal?" Dakota asked, drying not to hurl.
"A portal is bending the distance between two locations, that was falling through time." Corbin replied. "And Time sucks."
"I gotta give it to Nokomis for jumping at least two times." Chezza commented as she shakily stood up. "Alright, let's try to find this town." The party traveled to the closest Fey town and started asking around. Everyone stared at them blankly and told them to leave them alone. Only one older Fey was willing to help them.
"There aint a town like that for the Fey, but you may want to talk to humans." He spat on the ground as if the word 'human' had soiled his mouth. "No town with that name would be Fey."
"Thank you." Chezza smiled as she turned to leave. "Off to a human town."
"Awesome..." Dakota grumbled. Orthrus, Corbin, Aron, and Dakota stayed behind with a most of the pack and Leap members, while Rhyme, Sage, and Chezza walked around the closest human village.
"That village was destroyed during World War II. All that is there now are ruins if you can find them. Why do you want to know?" The young university student asked with a cocked head.
"Research." Rhyme replied quickly.
"Cool!" The kid smiled. "Some interesting things happened there." He started babbling on about different events and myths of the ghost town. "Oh like this one myth was of this man being chased by a woman wearing pants. Nowadays that isn't such a surprising thing, but back in the 1800s it was the talk of the village. They even said she yelled at him in a strange language and followed the man into a tavern! Most believe it was a witch cursing him because next time they saw the man, he had bled out in the snow. There were foot prints in the snow and then boom they just ended. Never saw the woman again." He ended it in a 'creepy' voice. "It's Russia's version of Sleepy Hallow."
"Thanks, you've helped a lot." Rhyme replied with a smile.
"Glad I could help. Most people tell me to shut up. See you around, but I have to get to class." The boy waved and ran off.
Around supper everyone met up again and reported. Chezza and Sage came up basically empty handed, while Rhyme informed what he had learned. "He told me of a myth about a young woman chasing a man in the late 1800s. Ironically enough, they believe it was a witch chasing this man."
"Why is that irony?" Corbin asked.
"Because I'm pretty sure it was Nokomis. The story goes that a woman wearing pants and a cloak chased after a man and yelled at him in a strange language. She followed him into a bar and the next time the locals saw the man he was dead with footprints walking off and then disappearing. I'm going to assume Nokomis went through another time rift."
"Ya thinks she actually killed the guy?" Dakota asked, playing with the thought in his head.
"Only if she had too. She isn't the type of person to just kill someone." Sage replied.
"I don't know..."
"Shut up, Dakota." Aron glared at the Water Wizard.
Ignoring the two young men, Sage continued, "We can travel there and hope we can find the box."
"It could take us days to find it considering it's been over 100 years and there was a war and snow." Chezza said.
"We'll have to look for places a man would hide it so he could return for it later." The party didn't have to go to the village as it turned out. They were walking through the town when the university male from before ran up to Rhyme.
"Wait!" Rhyme turned to see the young man.
"You know how you were curious about the town for your paper?" Rhyme nodded slowly. "I just remembered, they're doing an exhibit at the museum on WWII and the village is included. It may help you understand the lifestyle of the people, learn about myths of the time, and see some pretty cool artifacts from the time."
"Why are you helping me?"
The man cocked his head in confusion. "Why not? You're a history buff like me, haven't met many of them around here." He gave a crooked smile. "Maybe I'll see you there, but once again I best be off. Later." The college student ran off muttered about being late for work.
"Humans are strange." Rhyme commented as his friends walked up next to him.
"You're telling me. Kind of felt like he was hitting on you." Corbin replied as he looked at the place the young man just was.
"Didn't get that vibe. He was lonely though. I don't think he's Russia; English is too good and filled with slang."
"Whatever, I don't care. Let's go and check out these artifacts." Corbin turned and tugged his friend along. The party spent four hours in the museum and didn't even see half of the exhibit they were there for.