The Holekhor day lasts for what we would call 24 hours — not really surprising, as their world is just another version of our own. However, they divide the day into four long hours, each of which has four quarters to it. Therefore each one of their hours lasts six of our hours, and each quarter lasts one and a half hours.

The quarters are referred to by the Holekhor hour to which they belong. Hence the first quarter of the first hour is first quarter one, then second quarter one, and so on.

The diagram (right) shows the 24 hours of the English clock (inner circle) and the four hours of the Holekhor one (outer circle), each with its four quarters. Both days start at midnight. In colloquial speech the quarters are usually referred to by numbers, with the assumption the listener knows what you’re talking about. To say “second quarter three” you would just say “two three”.

The Holekhor quarters are also divided into what we may as well call minutes and seconds: forty five minutes to a quarter, seventy seconds to a minute. Five minutes into third quarter two will be referred to as “five three two”.

In The New World Order you might hear conversation such as “Meet me back at my tent at third quarter.” The speaker (Dhon Do) is assuming the listener (Por De) knows what the hour is; the implication is, to meet at the third quarter of the hour they are already in.

Easy, really …