Chapter 5: The First Fragment
The golden sky above Mara shimmered like a dream, but Caliah's words echoed in her mind like a warning bell:
*"Three fragments. Three trials. One chance."*
Mara stood beneath the great tree, still holding the tiny winged creature—now gently waking in her hand. Its gears clicked softly as it looked up at her, blinking like it remembered everything.
Caliah raised her hand and the space in front of them cracked open—like someone had split the air with invisible glass. Behind it: a swirling vision of a town long ago, with horse-drawn carriages and gas lamps flickering in foggy streets.
"This is the first layer," Caliah said. "The Year 1891. The fragment is hidden somewhere inside a moment that repeats itself… a moment that must be *fixed* to release the piece."
Mara stepped forward. "And if I fail?"
"The past will trap you there," Caliah said softly. "And your real time will forget you ever existed."
Mara's breath hitched. But she nodded.
"I'm ready."
She stepped through the portal—and her body jolted like she'd jumped into ice water.
*Streetlamps flickered. The air smelled of coal and wet stone.* A clock tower loomed overhead, stuck at *11:59 PM*, its chimes silent.
People moved like shadows—slow, looping, half-aware. Every 60 seconds, they reset. A woman dropped her shopping basket. A man lit a match. A dog barked. Then—back to the beginning.
*A perfect, endless minute.*
Mara realized: *This is the time loop. And I have to break it.*
The creature in her hand flew upward, beeping urgently. It darted toward a small antique shop with fogged-up windows.
Inside, she found a girl—her age—kneeling in front of a broken music box, crying. But she didn't move beyond her first few sobs. She reset too. Over and over.
Mara watched closely. The music box was cracked... but something glowed faintly inside it.
*The fragment.*
"Of course," Mara whispered. "It's hidden in her *memory*."
She knelt beside the girl and whispered: "I'm here to help. You don't have to stay stuck."
Suddenly, the loop slowed. The girl blinked… for the first time.
The clock ticked forward—*to midnight.* And the music box played.
The glowing piece inside it floated up, warm and bright. Mara reached out—
*And the world shattered around her.*
She was pulled upward, out of the layer, back into the glowing sky—*holding the first fragment.*
"The Time Collector," Mara whispered.
He smiled coldly. "You don't belong here."
"I'm here for the fragment," she said.
He raised one hand—and every clock in the room ticked faster.
"You want to steal from me?" he growled. "Then you'll have to beat my riddle."
A gear floated between them and unfolded into a glowing puzzle.
*"What has no beginning, no end, yet creates both?"*
Mara closed her eyes. She thought of the girl in the loop. The moment that broke when kindness entered. The way time shifted not with force—but with feeling.
She opened her eyes.
"Memory," she said.
The room went silent.
Then… the Collector laughed.
"Very good," he said. "But next time, I won't play fair."
A golden key appeared in midair. Attached to it was the second fragment.
Mara took it.
And then the clocks all stopped at once.
*Everything vanished.*
She fell—
And woke back beside Caliah, now holding two glowing fragments.
"You're halfway to the truth," Caliah said softly. "But the third trial... won't be a test. It will be a *choice.*"
Mara looked up. "What kind of choice?"
Caliah's eyes darkened. "One that could break your heart—or save time itself."