---
BONG.
The sound of the thirteenth bell still echoed behind his ears.
Kairen walked through a narrow alley where time itself seemed paused — curtains caught in mid-sway, steam frozen in the air, a cat mid-leap above a rooftop. Everything was stuck between Tick and Tock.
He finally saw it:
A crooked wooden door, painted black and gold, with an engraved plaque:
"The Last Minute — Fine Teas & Forgotten Fates"
The moment he touched the handle, the world resumed.
The door creaked open by itself.
---
🫖 Inside the Last Minute
Candlelit, quiet, and heavy with incense. Dozens of clocks on the wall—none in sync. Every tick a different rhythm. A low melody played from an old gramophone, its record spinning without a needle.
A woman stood behind the counter.
She wore a half-mask of brass gears, her other eye gold and glowing faintly.
"You arrived later than expected, but early enough to matter," she said.
Kairen nodded slightly. "I received this."
He handed over the wax-sealed letter.
She examined it. "The Watchmaker does not send invitations lightly."
She turned, opened a drawer, and retrieved a single black card.
On it, written in silver ink:
"Only those who do not belong may belong."
Then she placed a teacup in front of him. Dark liquid. No steam.
"Drink. To remember the piece you forgot."
Kairen paused. Then drank.
---
🌀 Memory Fracture: The Gears of the Soul
A moment. A flash. A scream in reverse.
He stood in a laboratory. Someone was holding his hand. Small. A child? Or sibling?
He heard a voice whisper:
"If I must disappear, let them take my time, not yours..."
Then—blinding white. A broken watch. Blood smeared across gears.
---
☕ Back to Reality
Kairen gasped, dropping the teacup. It didn't shatter — it reversed, flying back into place as if unbroken.
The masked woman only watched.
"You are what the Watchmaker calls a Temporal Orphan. Someone cut from the weave of normal time."
She handed him an envelope. "Your first directive."
Kairen opened it. Inside:
1. A map.
2. A feather — scorched at the tip.
3. A phrase:
"The Girl Who Dreamed Gods waits at the Tannhauser Steps. Do not look at her sketches under moonlight."
And lastly:
"Do not trust those who speak without blinking. They are the Ones Who Never Died."
---
🕯️ As Kairen Left...
The clocks in the tea house suddenly aligned. All chimed at once.
Thirteen times.
From the mirror behind the counter, a figure watched him go.
The Watchmaker.
His face unseen. But his eye—only one visible—spun like a golden gear.
---
🕰️ To Be Continued…
Next: Chapter 4 — Beneath the Library
Kairen uncovers a cursed archive built upon shifting floors, where books whisper forgotten names and time bends around knowledge best left buried.