The Secret Corridor: A Tale from Time: Recent Episodes
Danelle Julienne
What if it were possible to create a better future by sealing off the past—permanently? Seven years ago, this question set in motion a daring operation that resulted in a devastating loss for the Collective. The magical rebel order had finally managed to free the future from the dark grip of Zahlamaer—a centuries-old magician with a dangerous mastery of time travel, earth energy, and mind control—but their youngest and bravest agent, Ian Holtfield, was trapped in the past, seemingly forever. Then one night, the time travel corridor is mysteriously reopened, and the swampy southern town where twelve-year-old Mitch Scarlett lives becomes the center of a supernatural struggle to control a magical art on the verge of extinction.The granddaughter of a small-town illusionist, Mitch spends her days dodging bullies at school and nosing around the old books her grandfather keeps locked away in the attic. But after a strange encounter with a man whose amber eyes look a lot like her own, the family secrets start coming out: the reason for her parents’ disappearance, the home she never knew she had, and the magical powers that were stolen from her. As Mitch is drawn deeper into the world of the Collective, boring school days give way to a bold rescue mission with a motley group of new friends. Through backwoods bayous and New Orleans cemeteries to royal French courts and Babylonian gardens, a timeless flow of magic pulls Mitch and her Collective of magicians back into the twisted orbit of an ancient enemy. New chapters of The Secret Corridor released on Buzzsprout and published to CorridorCounty.com every Friday.
In the Season 1 finale, the agents of the Collective return home to Ol’ Cypress and make a startling discovery. As they piece together the events that have transpired in their absence, it soon becomes clear that Zahlamaer has been one step ahead of them the entire time. Under threat of attack, they must separate in order to work out different parts of a new operation to save the future.
After seven long years of separation by time, space, and secrets, the remaining agents of the Collective are finally reunited. On the long walk home through the marshy swamplands, tempers flare over past crimes, and Ian and Mitch are confronted with painful revelations.
Mitch, Ian, Izzie, and Reece land in the Timekeeper’s holding chamber, desperate to get back to the Sun King’s Court before moonset. Timekeeper Pollistone is suspicious of their mission but grants them passage so he can resume his search for a precious artifact that has gone missing from his vault. In the flarefield, the junior agents of the Collective are met with a horrifying sight, and Ian must come to hard terms with the permanence of the past.
Mitch and Ian arrive at the stardoor to the Sun King’s Court just in time to stop Izzie and Reece from tumbling into the clutches of Zahlamaer. Long-held secrets about Mitch’s mother and her relationship to the Trust start to spill, but with hours to go before moonset, the four junior agents of the Collective must make a hard choice in order to have any hope of returning to the present.
Mitch and Ian emerge from the flarefield greatly changed after their time spent trapped in the Sun King’s Court. Reunited with the senior agents of the Collective, the two have very different responses to their homecoming welcome, but both are equally shocked to learn that Reece and Izzie are headed into grave danger.
With the Royal Council in session and the full moon rising, Mitch and Ian have just one shot to sabotage the marquis’ uprising and escape the Sun King’s Court.
Mitch’s voyage vessel might be warty and stinky, but it’s been the perfect disguise to ensure no one gets close enough to discover her true identity, even the Marquis Richelieu. Having convinced himself Mitch is a Viceroy of the Trust, the marquis reveals a daring and treacherous plan to unseat the most powerful chrontercog in the world.
In a series of secret letters, Ian and Mitch lay out their strategy for confronting the marquis and ending his evil reign over the Kingdom du Soleil once and for all. Their long-awaited escape from the moon cycle hinges on the success of their plan.
Having narrowly escaped the marquis the night of the raid, Ian conspires with an unlikely helper to get a letter to Mitch at the Chateau du Soleil. Awaiting her reply, Ian recalls the series of strange events that led him to join the Collective as a young boy.
Back at Ol’ Cypress, the remaining members of the Collective debate their next move. Graham is devastated by Mitch’s failure to return from the Sun King’s Court, and Oren is determined to rescue Ian, but Miki is wary of walking into another one of Zahlamaer’s traps. With the safety of their junior agents hanging in the balance, the Collective come to consensus on a new mission.
At the behest of the Marquis Richelieu, Mitch takes a special place at the breakfast table of the Chateau du Soleil. Her troubled night gives way to a terrible understanding of Zahlamaer’s presence in the Sun King’s Court.
Believing Mitch is a viceroy of the Trust, the Marquis Richelieu welcomes her to the Chateau du Soleil. Alone in her chambers, Mitch reads the journal Ian entrusted to her before his arrest and discovers a shocking history of love and betrayal between a king and a countess.
Having finally found Ian, Mitch is almost sorry she came looking for him. He is an intolerably arrogant boy who seems to take pleasure in annoying her. But over a hot meal at the Fireside Inn, Mitch learns more about the seven years Ian spent trapped in the Sun King’s Court. As the gravity of what he’s been through starts to become clear, their growing connection is interrupted by the arrival of a long-time enemy.
Zipping through timeshafts and racing against the dawn, Mitch searches the Sun King’s vast lands, desperate to find Ian before the moon cycle resets. Her efforts end in an unexpected discovery.
After a terrifying tumble through the timechut, Mitch lands in the holding chamber of Timekeeper Pollistone. Disguised in her voyage vessel, Mitch makes a strong and quite unpleasant impression on the old tinker.
Mitch is transported to the time travel Corridor, where she makes her way through the endless passageways of a magnificent hall. Sparkling stars hang suspended in midair, and towering columns stretch from the glittering floor to the stormy electrical sky. As she searches for the stardoor marked with the coordinates to the Sun King’s Court, Mitch considers the weight of her mission with growing concern.
On Halloween night, the few remaining members of the Collective make their way through a dark, tangled swamp to the flarefield, where they find an open pathway to the time travel Corridor. Graham and Oren connect over a moment of fleeting release from their time anchors. Mitch and Reece complete their transformation into a new generation of “fireflies.”
Mitch and Reece undergo secret training for a risky mission, but Mitch must keep up appearances at school. Though her twelfth birthday is spoiled by a scolding from a teacher and a confrontation with two old enemies, Mitch delights in an unexpected gift from Reece.
Eliot Blackmont, Viceroy of the Trust, has committed terrible crimes all over time. Now a prisoner of the Collective, his knowledge of Zahlamaer’s whereabouts must be extracted, and Mitch has been charged with the task.
Mitch confronts Graham and Oren about their troubling tactics for dealing with one of Zahlamaer’s viceroys found wandering incoherently around the grounds of Ol’ Cypress. Graham makes a starting accusation against Oren, and Mitch is introduced to the remaining members of the Collective.
Ian Holtfield, the youngest and bravest agent of the Collective, has been trapped in the past for so long he’s lost track of time. Having given up hope a tracker will ever come to retrieve him, Ian spends each new moon cycle in the Sun King’s Court, advancing a secret war against the Marquis Richelieu. His mission is to weaken the negative energy pulling apart the past and polluting the present, but his campaign has unintended consequences.
Reece takes Mitch to a vault between the floors of Ol’ Cypress where locked-away treasures tell the story of a terrible fight to control the magical arts. Mitch begins to understand her own position within the timeless flow of magic connecting her to a mysterious past, a volatile present, and a potentially perilous future. But she isn’t prepared for the truth about her grandfather’s darker side.
Mitch learns about the hidden world of magic at the source of the conflict between the Collective and Zahlamaer’s Trust. Reece must walk a careful line between building friendship and breaking confidences.
In a crumbling mansion tucked deep in a Louisiana bayou, Mitch reconnects with her long-lost best friend, Reece Rainier. A junior agent of the Collective and amateur inventor, Reece is full of surprises…and information. Reece prepares to reveal the history Mitch has been forced to forget.
Memories sweep over a young man many thousands of years removed from his own time. A little boy is playing with pebbles in the marketplace when he’s interrupted by a powerful desert king. A baby princess throws her chubby arms around the boy’s neck, and a kingdom of wonders is entrusted to her new friend. Spectacular structures rise up out of the desert sands. These memories inflame ancient hatred in the dark magician called Zahlamaer.
Graham, Oren, and Mitch make their way through a backwoods bayou toward a mysterious place called Ol’ Cypress, where Mitch hopes to unravel the complicated story of her past. As Oren explains the strange events that brought him back to Corridor County, Mitch senses a dangerous enemy closing in.
Graham’s estranged half-brother returns to Corridor County with devastating news. Mitch comes clean with Graham about her secret studies, and Graham is forced to share the full truth about their family history and Mitch’s stolen birthright.
A mob of angry villagers has gathered outside the great golden gates of the Chateau du Soleil, where the Sun King is taking council with his one, and only, courtier. For hundreds of moon cycles, the Marquis Richelieu has taken cruel pleasure in inciting the king against his people. As the mob presses down upon the palace, the marquis devises a dark, magical plan to give the villagers exactly what they want: an audience with their king.
On the first day of 7th grade, Mitch spends the day battling two obnoxious bullies and sneaking peaks at an old, mysterious book she “borrowed” from her grandfather’s locked attic library. Hoping to better understand the family secrets revealed to her at St. Louis No. 1, she dedicates herself to learning as much as she can about flarefields, voyage vessels, and the dangers of being split in time. But by the end of the school day, Mitch realizes that rather than helping her make sense of her family history, The Corridor Atlas has caused big trouble at school and at home.
On the drive home from the Corridor County Harvest Festival, Mitch presses her grandfather to reveal the secrets he’s been keeping about their family past. Graham makes the bold decision to show rather than tell Mitch about their magical family history. Graham’s old pickup is transported through a timeshaft in an ancient apple orchard that connects to a New Orleans cemetery. Sitting against the headstone of her great-grandmother’s grave, Mitch realizes for the first time that her own family is a source of danger.
In another time, soldiers are marching endlessly through thick grey fog—cold and miserable and terribly caught off guard when a blue flame begins to rise up out of the earth in the middle of an open field. Out of the flame steps the Marquis Gaspar Richelieu with a hypnotic invitation for the troops to join him at his chateau. That evening, the weary soldiers feast and sleep, spread out in comfortable apartments and unable to hear the cries of the prisoners locked in the dungeon below.
It's opening day at the Corridor County Harvest Festival, and 12-year-old Mitch Scarlett, granddaughter of the celebrated Corridor County Illusionist, is making her way to the center stage. Caught in a tangle of street performers, Mitch trips and steadies herself against a tall stranger with a sinister looking face and bright amber eyes that look just like her own. Unnerved by the encounter, Mitch rushes off to meet her grandfather. By the end of his performance, Mitch realizes that not every member of the audience has come just to see the show.