The first toll echoed faintly in the cavern. A bell's call, carried on no wind, resonating in bone and blood alike. Aelric lifted his head, his vision blurred but sharp enough to catch the dread tightening Elara's face.
That sound wasn't meant to be heard here. Not underground. Not by mortals.
Elara whispered, "That wasn't the city bell…"
Aelric forced himself upright, leaning on the corrupted arm that still pulsed with residual energy from the hourglass. "No. That was something older. Something watching."
The hourglass dimmed, but the sand inside continued to twist unnaturally, spinning in both directions at once. The chamber was filled with a low hum, like the ticking of a thousand unseen clocks.
---
Above them, far beyond stone and ruin, the world itself was unraveling.
Timers across the continent flickered erratically. In some villages, the glowing digits froze at the same second and refused to move. In others, they accelerated wildly, devouring hours in minutes. People screamed as their remaining time vanished before their eyes.
And in the Council's chamber, the grand hour mirrors that reflected every citizen's timer shuddered and cracked, spiderwebs spreading across their polished surfaces.
Chancellor Kaelen stood at the center, fists clenched so tight his knuckles split. "It's begun."
Another councilor, face pale, turned to him. "The Forgotten Hour has been disturbed… Tell me you did not expect this!"
Kaelen's eyes gleamed with cold fury. "I expected many things. But not fools touching what Seraphiel sealed."
---
Back in the cavern, Aelric pressed a hand to his wound, wincing at the warm blood seeping through his shirt. Elara tore a strip from her cloak and wrapped it around him, her hands shaking.
"You're bleeding too much. If we don't get out of here—"
"We can't leave." Aelric's voice was sharp, steadier than it had any right to be. "If we go now, whatever that was—" he nodded to the hourglass, "—will consume everything before we even reach the surface."
Elara tied the knot tight, glaring at him. "And if we stay, we bleed out here, and no one knows what we saw."
The corruption in his arm writhed, tendrils pulsing under his skin. For a moment, Aelric swayed. Elara caught him, her fear breaking into anger. "Stop playing the hero. You can't keep pushing like this."
But his grin was the same reckless one she hated and loved. "Heroes die clean. I'm not that lucky."
---
The hourglass trembled again. The sand inside erupted, streaks of gold and black shooting upward, striking the ceiling and carving fissures into the stone. Dust rained down.
Elara dragged Aelric back as a crack split the floor between them and the hourglass. From the fracture, shadow spilled—not like the hollows' corruption, but something colder, heavier.
Whispers filled the air. Voices layered over one another, fragments of time out of sync.
"Four nights remain."
"You should not be here."
"Every choice is already made."
Elara covered her ears, but the voices pressed straight into her skull. "Make it stop!"
Aelric stood trembling, his corrupted arm glowing fiercely as if answering the hourglass. The whispers clawed at him too, but his eyes were fixed, unyielding.
"I've heard worse," he muttered. Then louder, to the artifact itself: "If you're going to break, then show me why Seraphiel feared you."
The whispers cut off. The chamber fell into suffocating silence.
---
The sand inside the hourglass stilled. Then, with impossible speed, it drained—falling upward and downward until nothing remained. The glass cracked from within, light pouring through the fractures.
And in the glow, a figure appeared. Not whole—shattered, fragmented, as though seen through broken mirrors. But it stood within the hourglass, its outline humanoid, its presence suffocating.
Elara stumbled back, dragging Aelric with her. "What is that?"
The figure spoke with a voice that was all voices. Male, female, old, young—time itself speaking through splintered chords.
"You are out of place."
The cavern shuddered. Dust cascaded down.
Elara's dagger felt useless in her hand. She whispered, "We can't fight that."
But Aelric stepped forward, shoulders squared, though his knees threatened to give way. His corrupted arm pulsed in resonance with the figure.
"Then we talk," he said.
The fragmented presence tilted its head, shards of light shifting. "Talk? You are a fracture. You should not exist."
Aelric smirked faintly. "Get in line. I've heard that before."
---
The world above screamed with the tolling of the unseen bell.
The Council scrambled as hour mirrors shattered one by one, sending shards of glowing glass clattering across marble floors.
Kaelen slammed his hand against the grand table, voice echoing over the chaos. "Find them. Whoever disturbed the Forgotten Hour must be erased before the fracture spreads!"
But deep down, he already knew who was responsible. The corrupted boy and the girl who defied her timer.
Aelric and Elara.
---
In the cavern, the figure inside the hourglass leaned forward, its splintered form bleeding across reality.
"You carry corruption, yet you resist consumption. An anomaly. Dangerous."
Aelric's grin was sharp, though blood still stained his teeth. "Dangerous is my specialty."
The figure's fractured hand lifted, pressing against the inside of the glass. The hourglass groaned, light splintering outward.
Elara grabbed Aelric's arm. "We need to run. Now."
But Aelric's gaze was locked on the figure. His corrupted arm pulsed brighter than ever, veins crawling up his neck.
For a heartbeat, their pulses matched—the shard inside him and the power sealed in the hourglass.
And in that heartbeat, Aelric understood:
This wasn't just an artifact. It was a prison.
And whatever was inside wanted out.
---
The figure's voice shattered the silence.
"Night Five begins early."
The hourglass cracked wide open, spilling light and shadow into the cavern like a flood.
Elara screamed, shielding her eyes. Aelric roared, his corrupted arm bursting with fire.
And the bell tolled again.