My eyes open. Everything hurt. My head was a big mess of pain. My arm… my left arm was wrong. It was cold. Not normal cold. A deep, inside cold. It felt heavy and dead. I could not move my fingers.
I was in my bed. In the barracks. How did I get here?
The last thing I remember… the shop. The ghost man. His eyes. The watch.
The watch!
I sat up too fast. My head spun. I looked at my right hand. It was closed in a fist. I slowly opened it.
There it was. The little brass watch. It was warm. It was ticking.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
It was a soft sound, but in the quiet room, it was loud. How did I get it back? Rostov took it. I remember he threw it back. He was angry.
I looked at my dead left arm. The skin was a bad grey color. Like a dirty sky. I touched it with my right hand. It felt like touching a piece of meat from the fridge. Hard and cold.
But the watch was warm. It ticked.
I did a stupid thing. I moved the watch close to my dead arm. I touched the grey skin with the warm brass.
Something happened.
A feeling. Like little pins and needles. A lot of them. My arm felt… fuzzy. The grey color started to go away. Like someone was wiping it off. Pink skin came back. I could feel the cold leaving. It was like warm water was filling my arm from the inside.
I could move my fingers! A little. It was working. The watch was fixing me.
"You are awake."
I jumped. The watch almost fell from my hand. I closed my fist tight around it.
Instructor Valerius stood in the doorway. She was not in her uniform. She wore normal clothes. A dark shirt and pants. She looked more dangerous like this. Her eyes went from my face, to my hand hiding the watch, to my left arm. My sleeve was rolled up. The skin was still a little grey, but getting better fast.
She saw it.
"The medics said you had temporal necrosis. Frostbite from broken time. They said your arm was dead." She walked into the room. Her steps were quiet. "It does not look dead now."
I did not know what to say. My mouth was dry.
"Rostov made his report," she said. She stopped next to my bed. "He said you led the squad. You found a artifact. A watch. He said it… reacted to you."
She held out her hand. "Let me see it."
I did not want to. It was mine. It saved me. But I am just a cadet. She is a Instructor. I slowly opened my hand.
The watch sat on my palm. Ticking.
She looked at it. She did not try to touch it.
"It is ticking," she said. "In a room where time is normal. That is not possible."
I said nothing.
"The Frozen Market is called that because time there is frozen. Stopped. Nothing moves. Nothing changes." Her eyes were locked on the watch. "But this… this thing has its own time. A little piece of moving time in your hand."
She finally looked at me. "What happened when you touched the phantom?"
I swallowed. "It was cold. So cold. My arm died."
"And the watch? What did it do?"
"It… fixed it," I whispered.
"It did not fix it," she corrected me, her voice sharp. "It is fixing it. Your arm is not a finished thing. It is a process. The watch is forcing that process to happen correctly. It is making your arm's time move right again."
She leaned closer. I could smell her soap. "This is a Level 4 artifact. Maybe Level 5. Something this powerful… it does not just let you pick it up. It chooses."
My heart was beating fast. It chooses.
"The system was wrong about your Echo, Kaelen," she said, her voice very low. "It is not about the past. I think it is about… possibilities. You saw a way to get the watch, didn't you? You saw the paths."
I stared at her. I was scared. She knew too much.
Suddenly, a loud alarm screamed through the building. A red light flashed outside in the hall.
BRRRRRR! BRRRRRR!
Instructor Valerius stood up straight. Her face changed. It was hard and ready.
[ALERT: BREACH IN ARTIFACT STORAGE]
[LOCATION: SUB-LEVEL 3]
[INTRUDER DETECTED]
"The storage? That is where they put all the dangerous things from the Echo Zones," she said, mostly to herself. She looked at me. "Stay here."
She ran out of the room.
I was alone. The alarm was still screaming. I held the watch tight. It was ticking faster now. Its glow was brighter. It was like it was… scared. Or excited.
My mind started to feel fuzzy. Then it happened. Not because I wanted it. It just came.
I stay in bed. Nothing happens. The alarm stops. Life goes on.
I get up. I go to the door. I look into the hall. A guard runs past. He does not see me.
*I get up. I go to the door. I go left. I go to the stairs. I go down. Down to Sub-Level 3. I see a broken door. A dark room inside. A shadow moves. It sees me. It is fast. Too fast. I—*
The vision cut off. My head hurt.
The watch was pulling me. It wanted to go down there.
This was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
But my feet were already on the floor. My left arm was almost normal now. I held the ticking watch in my hand.
I walked to the door. I looked into the hall. It was empty.
I knew I should stay. I knew it was safe.
But the watch ticked in my hand. A steady, pulling beat.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
I took a step into the hall.
Then another.
I was going towards the stairs. Towards Sub-Level 3.
The alarm kept screaming.
And the watch kept ticking.
It was leading me into trouble. I knew it.
But I followed anyway.