Breath of Time

Breath of Time
Owner	Cornelia Hale
Location	Kandrakar
Magic
Powers	Manipulates time

The Breath of Time is a fictional object introduced in the W.I.T.C.H. comics. The Breath of Time's powers govern time and its mechanics.

Physical appearance

Its shape resembles an hourglass: a gourd-like glass vessel with grains of sand inside. It is carried as a pendant necklace when inactive and increases size when its powers are summoned.

Plot

After the Guardians lost their ability to summon Astral Drops, the then Oracle, Endarno, gave the Breath of Time to Cornelia (since Will already had the Heart of Kandrakar) and she gained the power to activate it. He gave them the Breath of Time so that the Guardians could leave Heatherfield without being noticed as Endarno planned to retrieve the Crown of Light from Queen Elyon of Meridian and it was the Guardians' task of retrieving it for him.

Later, Orube became the person responsible to watch over the Breath of Time until the other Guardians returned to Heatherfield. When the Breath of Time suddenly stopped working, much to Orube's surprise, the Guardians' disappearance lasted longer than usual, and it was through a joint effort of Matt Olsen and Orube that they have arrived home without everyone being suspicious of their absence.

Cornelia discovered a crack in the pendant, which caused all the clocks in Heatherfield to malfunction and the Guardians to see various scenes from their past, including Frost the Hunter, Yan Lin while she was living in Heatherfield, and Phobos appearing in front of them.

There, Phobos explained that he cast a return spell on the Breath of Time while inside Endarno's body, where he split himself into two parts and which caused the Breath of Time to malfunction. It took time until that spell activated, after the sand from inside the Breath of Time were spilled and all five Guardians thought about Phobos at the same time. Phobos' corporal essence remained until the pendant was immersed in water and the flow of sand was suspended and Phobos was defeated for the second time.

After the encounter with Phobos, Cornelia and the Guardians returned to Kandrakar, and surrendered the broken hourglass to Yan Lin. She explained that the original, broken Breath of Time would be destroyed, and would be replaced by a copy from the Room of Phantoms.

In Issue 050: It's Magical Anyway, it was used by the Oracle to offer the Guardians a look into alternate scenarios in the past and into the future.

Powers

The abilities of the Breath of Time share a similar trait: to freely manipulate and control time.

Among the powers of the Breath of Time, the ability to freeze time is the most frequently seen. Whenever the keeper of the necklace wishes, it increases its size and it activates, stopping the passage of time in Heatherfield. Whether it could affect entire worlds is not revealed.

Another ability of the Breath of Time is time reversal, where time can be turned back so that events that happened in a period of time seemed like it never happened. Cornelia Hale used this power to restore Heatherfield after the effects caused by Phobos' return spell.

The Oracle displayed another aspect of the Breath of Time's powers, the ability to see into alternate pasts and futures.

List of powers

• Time travel
• Time control & manipulation
  • Pause time
  • Reverse time
• See alternate timelines

Gallery

Images of the Breath of Time.