Part 13: The Truth About the Pocket Watch’s Missing

The stairway of light wound tighter and tighter as Lyn ascended, every step pulling her deeper into the tower’s pulsing heart. Her fingers tightened around the pocket watch — the same one Du Hao had entrusted to her. Its steady ticking had always been her guide, her anchor.

But now, as she climbed, Lyn noticed something she had ignored for so long.

A slight hesitation.

A missing beat.

Not random, not broken — but deliberate. Like a hidden rhythm only she was meant to hear.

At the end of the stairway, she reached a small chamber with no doors and no windows. Only a pedestal stood in the center, above which floated an orb of crystallized time, spinning slowly, suspended by forces beyond comprehension.

The pocket watch in Lyn’s hand grew heavier, pulling her toward the orb. She approached, heart racing, and lifted the watch.

The moment the two objects aligned, a powerful surge rippled through the room, distorting the air, the sound — even her thoughts. The pocket watch opened on its own, revealing an intricate map of symbols, constellations, and—most importantly—a missing cog inside the mechanism.

The missing beat wasn't an accident. It was a signal.

A small voice, not quite a whisper, not quite a memory, filled the chamber.

“A clock that ticks without flaw binds its keeper to a single path.

But a clock that skips...

gives birth to choice.”

Lyn’s breath caught.

All this time, she had believed the tower was simply a relic of power. A machine preserving history, ensuring stability.

But that was only half the truth.

The pocket watch had been modified — by Du Hao himself — to introduce uncertainty into the rigid structure of time. A skipped beat, a lost second... it was an intentional flaw that allowed for new possibilities to exist. For the future not to be dictated solely by the past.

It was why Du Hao had trusted her. Why he had risked everything.

Lyn traced the missing cog inside the watch with her fingertip. She saw the choices she had made, the paths she had diverged from, the futures she had unknowingly created — all made possible by that tiny, almost invisible, imperfection.

But there was more.

The voice continued:

“The Watch is both a gift and a curse.

It offers freedom…

but demands a price.”

At the base of the pedestal, hidden in the shadows, Lyn noticed an inscription.

"One who holds the broken time must choose:

Restore the Tower and seal fate...

Or shatter the Tower and embrace chaos."

Her chest tightened.

Was this the true war Du Hao had fought? Not against an enemy, but against time itself?

Behind her, the air shimmered. A portal opened — and through it, a vision of the world she knew: battered cities, flickering skies, people trapped by choices they had never truly made.

Ahead, the crystallized orb spun faster, awaiting her decision.

The pocket watch skipped another beat in her hand, like a quiet heartbeat urging her forward.

Lyn knew now that the missing beat wasn’t just a mechanical flaw.

It was hope.

And it was hers to wield — or to destroy.

To be continued...