The village of Eldenbrook woke to a morning like any other. Mist clung to the hills, and the river gurgled lazily past the wooden docks. But for Eryndor, today was different.
He had always felt… out of place. Things seemed slightly off when he walked through the market, like the world whispered secrets he could almost hear. He brushed it off—until he found the flower.
It was tucked between two stones near the riverbank: a small, radiant blossom glowing with faint golden light. Its petals shimmered as if holding sunlight within them, and its scent made the hair on his arms stand on end.
Eryndor reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the petals, the world shifted.
The air around him stilled. Birds froze mid-flight. Even the river seemed to hesitate in its flow. Then the flower dissolved into a sparkling mist and entered his hands—not as petals, but as a small vial of glowing liquid.
"What…?" Eryndor whispered, staring at the vial.
A voice echoed in his mind—soft, ancient, and commanding:
"You have pulled a piece of a future that never was. It is yours now… but it no longer exists in its own time."
Eryndor stumbled back, heart pounding. He had heard stories of the Archive, the great library beyond time, but he had never believed them. And yet… this flower, this impossible flower, had come from somewhere else. From a time that might have been.
Cautiously, he uncorked the vial. The golden liquid shimmered and flowed like liquid light. He touched it to a small scratch on his arm, left from yesterday's climb through the cliffs. The pain vanished instantly. His scratch healed as if it had never happened.
It worked.
But as he looked around, Eryndor noticed something strange. Across the river, the forest he had passed every day seemed… different. Trees shifted subtly. Leaves shimmered in colors that had never existed. The flower he had pulled from the future had changed the present.
A chill ran down his spine.
He was not supposed to have this power.
And somewhere far above the clouds, where no ordinary human could see, something was watching.