Absolutely — time itself begins to speak.
---
Chapter 10: The Clock That Bleeds
In a place no compass can reach, within a palace that rewinds its halls each morning, dwells the most elusive of the Ten:
Aeonth, the Law King of Time.
He does not merely remember history —
He records it as it happens.
And when needed…
He rewrites it.
---
The Sanctum of Still Minutes
The Sanctum was built on a paradox: a moment stretched eternally.
Its heart, the Chrono Spire, is a tower of floating gears and silver sand that runs upward instead of down.
In its apex chamber, Aeonth stood.
Clad in layered robes that shimmered with shifting centuries, his eyes were ancient sundials — spinning symbols orbiting his pupils. One hand held the Scepter of Moments, the other a scroll that never ended.
> "Twelve timelines collapsed this morning," he murmured, voice like layered echoes.
"And one just screamed."
Behind him, a mirror of polished timeglass began to fracture.
Each shard reflected a different Kael, Liora, Syris…
In one future, they stood triumphant.
In another… dead, devoured, forgotten.
He turned to the golden disc on the floor — a meeting circle bound in hourrunes.
> "It's time," he said.
"I must leave the Sanctum."
---
A King Bound by Unfolding
Aeonth had not stepped beyond the Chrono Spire in over four thousand years.
The last time he had, he sealed away the Epoch Eater, a temporal parasite that consumed potential.
Since then, he had remained behind the scenes, subtly guiding moments, stitching probability like a hidden seamstress.
But now?
The Laws were gathering.
The Devourer stirred.
And something deeper had begun to scratch the edges of unwritten time.
> "Even the past fears what comes next."
---
Meeting the Present
Aeonth appeared to the others without travel —
One blink, and he stood among them.
Kael's flames flickered.
Zephra tensed.
Naeryn tilted her head, recognizing an echo she'd once dreamed.
Kairo bowed, ever precise.
Only Syris spoke first.
> "So… the Watcher joins the war."
Aeonth's eyes spun.
> "I am not here to fight."
> "Then why appear?" Kael asked.
> "Because your war is not with the Devourer alone," Aeonth said, unfurling his endless scroll.
From it emerged glowing strings of moments, frozen in golden glyphs.
He pointed to one.
> "This… is a memory none of you have."
It showed a past cycle — Ten Kings before them. All devoured. All erased.
Even from Time.
Only Aeonth remembered.
> "We have failed before. Entire universes have forgotten they ever existed. But this time…"
He looked at them, one by one.
> "This time, one of us is already corrupted."
---
The Timeline Fracture
Silence fell.
Aurelia stepped forward, light revealing even the breath between them.
> "Which one?" she asked.
Aeonth closed his eyes.
> "That's the problem. I see the fall, not the faller.
Time has been deliberately veiled… from Time."
Even he — the King of Continuity — had blind spots.
The scroll in his hand burned.
> "One of the Ten has already made contact with something older than Law.
They may not even know it."
Liora clenched her fists.
Bran lowered his gaze.
Velas, in the distance, said nothing.
But his shadow… twisted the wrong direction.
---
In the Hollow Beyond
The Devourer stilled.
It could feel Aeonth's presence on the surface of reality.
And deeper still, the true enemy stirred — the Unwritten One.
Not bound by Law.
Not born of stars.
But of voided stories.
---