BOOK TWO: THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE GATE
Chapter 14: The Bridge Between Worlds
The broken pocket watch lay in Riva's trembling hands.
Tick...
The sound was almost inaudible.
Yet every heartbeat in the valley seemed to follow its rhythm.
11:59.
One minute before midnight.
One minute before something that had been waiting for thousands of years.
Silence settled over the group.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The older Lucien had vanished as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving behind more questions than answers.
---
Aarvi was the first to break the silence.
"So..."
She looked at the empty space where the older Lucien had stood.
"Either we've all gone completely insane..."
"...or we just met someone from the future."
Eva carefully picked up the broken watch.
"It wasn't an illusion."
"The watch is real."
She examined its surface.
Ancient symbols had been carved into the silver casing.
Unlike the symbols on the compass...
These weren't written in the language of Aurelia.
They were older.
Much older.
---
Caelum looked at the watch with visible concern.
"I hoped this day would never come."
Riva looked at him.
"You know what this is?"
Caelum nodded slowly.
"It is called the Chrono Watch."
"It belongs to the Guardians of Time."
"Guardians of Time?"
Cassian repeated.
"I thought Guardians only protected the Gates."
Caelum sighed.
"The Gates..."
"The Kingdoms..."
"The Flow of Time..."
"They were all protected by different Orders."
"But every Order disappeared after the Great Collapse."
"The Chrono Watch was believed to have been destroyed."
Lucien stared at the watch.
"If the older me carried it..."
"Then somehow..."
"He survived far longer than we thought possible."
---
Suddenly—
The bridge of stars trembled.
The glowing path leading toward the Silent Observatory flickered.
One section disappeared before reforming seconds later.
Elian immediately understood.
"The bridge is becoming unstable."
"Why?" Parna asked.
"Because two timelines are touching each other."
Everyone looked at the sky.
The crimson moon and the blue moon had moved closer together.
Their light was beginning to overlap.
Where the two lights met...
The stars themselves disappeared.
---
Riva's pendant suddenly grew warm.
Another vision overwhelmed her.
She found herself standing on the bridge alone.
The Silent Observatory stood before her.
Its giant clock had stopped moving.
The doors were wide open.
Inside...
Hundreds of clocks hung from the ceiling.
Every one showed a different time.
A familiar voice whispered behind her.
"You came too late."
Riva turned.
Standing in the shadows...
Was Eva.
But older.
Her hair had turned silver.
The compass in her hand was broken into two pieces.
Tears rolled down her face.
"We couldn't save him."
Before Riva could ask who—
The vision shattered.
She stumbled backward.
Eva caught her.
"What happened?"
Riva hesitated.
"I saw..."
She looked directly at Eva.
"I saw you."
Everyone became silent.
"You were older."
"You said..."
Riva swallowed.
"...we couldn't save someone."
Lucien's expression darkened.
"The future is changing again."
---
Without warning—
The bridge released a pulse of silver light.
The first section of the bridge slowly disappeared.
Caelum shouted,
"We don't have time anymore!"
"If we wait..."
"The path will collapse."
Cassian drew his sword.
"Everyone."
"We cross together."
---
The group stepped onto the Bridge Between Worlds.
The moment Riva's foot touched the glowing path—
The world below disappeared.
The Black Mountain.
The White Valley.
Even the Seventh Gate vanished beneath clouds.
They were walking through the sky itself.
Blue stars floated around them like fireflies.
Ancient constellations slowly moved overhead.
Aarvi looked over the edge.
"I officially hate heights."
Parna smiled.
"You said that at the Frozen Fortress."
"I meant it then too."
Even Lucien laughed softly.
For a brief moment...
The journey felt peaceful.
---
Then...
A voice echoed behind them.
"Riva..."
She stopped walking.
The voice belonged to the matron from the orphanage.
Gentle.
Warm.
Exactly as she remembered.
"No."
Riva whispered.
The little girl's warning returned to her mind.
Don't trust the first person who calls your name.
She continued walking.
The voice called again.
This time louder.
"Riva..."
Then another voice.
"Eva..."
"Parna..."
"Aarvi..."
One by one...
Each member of the group heard someone they loved calling them.
Eva heard her grandmother.
Aarvi heard her uncle.
Parna heard the child from the Hall of Echoes.
Orion heard a woman whose face he still couldn't remember.
Even Cassian stopped walking.
He had heard someone too.
Only Caelum and Elian continued forward without looking back.
Lucien shouted,
"Don't answer!"
"The bridge creates Echo Voices!"
"They'll trap you between worlds!"
---
The voices became more desperate.
"Please..."
"Come back..."
"We're waiting..."
Aarvi closed her eyes tightly.
"I know you're not real."
"But I wish you were."
Tears rolled down her face.
The voice of her uncle slowly faded.
Parna reached over and squeezed Aarvi's hand.
"We'll make new memories."
Eva smiled gently.
"And protect the old ones."
The Star Marks on the Six Heirs glowed together.
The false voices vanished.
The bridge stabilized once again.
---
Hours later...
The clouds finally parted.
The Silent Observatory stood before them.
Everyone stopped in awe.
It was far larger than they had imagined.
The tower floated upon a massive island suspended in the sky.
Seven waterfalls flowed upward into the heavens.
Gigantic gears surrounded the tower, each one larger than a castle.
At the very top...
A colossal clock turned slowly.
Its hands pointed to...
11:59.
The same time shown on the broken pocket watch.
Eva looked at the watch.
Then at the clock.
"They're connected."
Caelum nodded.
"Every Chrono Watch is linked to the Observatory."
Just then...
The giant clock ticked once.
The minute hand moved a little closer to midnight.
The massive entrance doors slowly opened by themselves.
Darkness waited inside.
And from within that darkness...
A calm voice echoed through the tower.
"I've been expecting all of you."
The Six Heirs instinctively reached for their weapons.
Standing inside the doorway...
Was an old man dressed in blue robes.
His long white beard reached his waist.
In one hand he carried a lantern filled with silver flames.
In the other...
He held an identical pocket watch.
The old man smiled kindly.
Then he said the one sentence that made everyone freeze.
"Welcome..."
"...to the place where time remembers what history forgot."
End of Chapter 14