WebNovels

Chapter 19 - Before the First Clock

Ethan stumbled into sunlight that felt too perfect—golden, warm, and unnaturally still. The portal sealed behind them with a sound like a closing heartbeat. The world they stepped into wasn't recorded in any history book. It wasn't just ancient; it was pre-history, primordial in a way that suggested time itself hadn't learned to count yet.

Vast trees arched above them, their roots pulsing with slow, luminous veins. Giant stone obelisks floated lazily in the air, etched with symbols older than writing. Even gravity felt optional here.

Lily blinked slowly. "This is the cradle of chronology. We're before civilization. Before language. Maybe even before memory."

The ground beneath them shifted gently, like breathing earth. The shard in Ethan's hand felt hot, alive—syncing with something deeper than time.

Suddenly, a voice whispered across the wind.

"Voyagers… watchers… wielders of broken time… why have you come?"

A figure emerged from the mist: tall, translucent, and radiant like a prism catching a thousand suns. Its eyes shimmered with entire galaxies.

"Are you… one of the Assembly?" Ethan asked.

"I am what remains. The Assembly fractured itself to preserve time. I am Memory, the First Witness."

Lily stepped forward. "We seek the cause of the First Fracture. The point where everything began to unravel."

Memory turned and extended an arm. In the air, a panorama unfolded—a sweeping vision of early time. A great machine hovered in the center of a void, humming with potential. The Tether, still new.

"We designed the Tether not to control time, but to stabilize it," Memory explained. "But there was dissent. One among us believed that time should be directed, not balanced. A Guardian named Orun broke the pact. He forged the Dark Shard and tampered with the flow."

Ethan felt a chill. "This Orun—is he the presence in the Archive? The one darker than Marcus?"

"Yes. Marcus was merely a fragment. Orun is the echo that started it all. He seeks to reconstitute the Assembly—to become a god over fixed fate."

The vision changed: Ethan saw an explosion of realities branching like lightning. Echoes of himself, Lily, Marcus. One version of Ethan vanished in fire. Another ruled from a throne of wires. Another—dead at birth.

Lily spoke softly. "If Orun succeeds, all choice disappears."

"Correct," Memory said. "Only one timeline. One truth. One tyrant."

Ethan clenched his fists. "Then how do we stop him?"

Memory's gaze grew sad. "You must find the Vault of Beginnings. It contains the last uncorrupted version of the Tether's code. But it lies outside all timelines—in the Null Zone."

The name alone sent a tremor through the air.

Lily nodded. "We'll find it."

"You'll be hunted," Memory warned. "By Orun's agents. Some were once Assembly. Now, they are Shadows."

"We've been hunted before," Ethan said.

Memory began to fade, its form flickering. "Then go swiftly. The past is waking. It remembers who you are."

With a final shimmer, the vision and the First Witness vanished.

Lily and Ethan stood alone in a realm before time.

Their next step would be into the Null Zone.

And beyond that… the Vault.

More Chapters