The underground chamber rumbled as gears turned deep beneath the surface. Dust drifted through the shafts of fading sunlight that pierced the ruined cathedral overhead. Kade stood at the threshold, staring at the half-collapsed city beyond.
The map Lira held shimmered with arcane runes, glowing faintly in the presence of the shard's energy.
"So this is it," Kade murmured. "The first Forgotten Shard is buried here?"
Aurelle nodded. "This used to be Velmire—the City of Hours. Until time fractured."
Kade squinted at the city skyline. Spires twisted into the sky, frozen mid-collapse. Birds flapped their wings in reverse. People—spectral remnants—flickered between seconds, stuck in endless loops of their final moments.
"Time broke here?" Lira asked quietly.
"More like it was rewritten," Aurelle replied. "When the Archon tried to claim the Hourglass Shard, the city fought back. It's been caught in a recursive fold ever since. Nothing ages. Nothing ends. And everything wants out."
Kade stepped forward, his glyph blade humming against his back. "So how do we find the shard in a city where time's gone mad?"
Aurelle looked him dead in the eye. "We don't search."
"…Then what?"
"We let it find you."
The ground quaked beneath their feet.
A tolling bell echoed from nowhere—and everywhere.
Velmire was waking up.
Lira quickly chanted a shielding spell as time rippled. The air grew heavy, and a shadow stepped from behind a tilted clocktower.
Its body was made of glass, gears, and bone. Faces twisted behind its transparent chestplate. A living chronobeast.
"Timewraith," Aurelle said. "A powerful one."
The Timewraith screeched, voice like warped violin strings, and charged.
Kade spun, dodging its blade-like limbs, and struck back. The blade phased through its torso—useless.
"Physical attacks won't work!" Lira shouted. "It's anchored to a moment, not a form!"
"What moment?" Kade growled, ducking another strike.
Aurelle flung a frost rune at the wraith. "We need to collapse its timeline—force it to relive its death!"
The wraith lunged at Kade—just as a pulse erupted from his chest. His glyphs flared white.
A memory not his own surged through his mind.
A man… running through burning halls…
A child… locked in a vault…
The shard buried in his soul resonated—and the wraith froze mid-attack.
Kade grabbed its head.
"Rest."
With a flicker of light, the Timewraith dissolved into sand.
Aurelle looked stunned. "You accessed its anchor. How?"
"I… don't know." Kade blinked, breathing hard. "It felt like it knew me."
"It did," Lira said. "Or rather, it knew your shard. The Forgotten Shards remember everything they've touched."
Aurelle stepped beside them, eyes scanning the broken horizon.
"That was just the first. This city will throw everything it has at us to stop you. The shard's buried in the Sanctum of Hours… at the city's heart. But we'll need to pass through three chronolocks."
"Chronolocks?" Kade asked.
"Time-warped trials," Lira explained. "Each one tests more than strength."
Kade sheathed his blade and stared at the clockwork maze ahead.
"Then let's go break time."
---
Elsewhere…
In a chamber wreathed in silver flames, a council of veiled figures stood before a pool of flowing memories.
"Subject Zero is accelerating," one murmured.
"The Frostbinder broke protocol. She's not sanctioned."
"Neither is the truth," another hissed. "And yet it bleeds forward."
From the shadows, a tall woman stepped forth. Her mask bore the mark of the Spiral Eye.
"I'll intervene," she said. "Before he learns the name."
The council stirred.
"You'd risk exposure?"
"I'd risk everything," she whispered. "To keep the truth buried."
---
Back in Velmire…
The trio reached the first chronolock. A gateway made of frozen minutes and echoing laughter stood before them.
On the door, a riddle:
"What is broken every time it is spoken?"
Lira smiled. "Easy. Silence."
The gate creaked open—then slammed shut again.
"No," Aurelle said quietly. "It's not the real answer."
Kade stepped forward, touching the door.
He remembered a time—bare feet on burned stone, a promise lost in the scream of flames.
"…Trust," he said.
The door opened.
Kade stepped through.
Lira watched him go, her heart tightening. "He's remembering too fast."
Aurelle nodded solemnly. "And the more he remembers… the more dangerous he becomes. Not to others—but to himself."
They followed.
Unaware that shadows moved in the mirrors behind them… and that one of them had already been compromised.
---
End of Chapter 16