Aelira's breath misted in the cold morning air as she stood at the edge of the ruined village, the remnants of a once-thriving settlement now buried beneath layers of time. The crumbled walls, covered in creeping ivy, whispered of a past long forgotten. There was a certain stillness in the air, a quiet that felt unnatural, as if time itself had taken a breath and decided to hold it.
She had always felt it — the weight of something lost, something hidden. And it was in this forgotten place that she had finally found the artifact she had been seeking: the shattered hourglass. It was half-buried beneath the roots of a twisted tree, as if it had been waiting for her.
Aelira crouched beside the ancient relic, her fingers brushing against the cool glass. The hourglass was broken, yet the sand within it refused to fall. Instead, the grains hovered in mid-air, suspended by an invisible force. She could feel the pulse of its power, a hum deep in her chest, almost as if it were calling to her.
It had to be real. Her mother had told her stories, legends that seemed too fantastical to believe, but this... this was no myth. The Timekeepers. The war. The betrayal. The hourglass was more than a mere object; it was a key. The key to something vast, something dangerous.
Aelira's fingers tightened around the glass, the coolness sending a jolt through her. She looked around the abandoned village, feeling the weight of the moment. Something was wrong. A shift in the air, an almost imperceptible change in the flow of time.
The hourglass vibrated in her grip, and the ground beneath her feet trembled.
Without warning, a flash of light erupted from the hourglass, blinding her. She stumbled back, her heart racing. When the light faded, she found herself standing in a completely different place — the village was gone. In its place, a sprawling battlefield stretched out before her, smoke rising from the remnants of broken armor and scorched earth.
Aelira's pulse quickened. The air was thick with the stench of blood, the sounds of clashing steel echoing around her. She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing — soldiers in strange, ornate armor fought fiercely, their faces grim as they battled on a land torn apart by war.
"What—?" she whispered, but no one answered.
Her hand instinctively went to the sword at her side, the weight of the weapon comforting in her grip. The hourglass was still in her hand, though now it was glowing faintly, the sand shifting within its fractured glass.
Suddenly, a figure broke through the chaos — a man clad in dark armor, his face hidden beneath a hood. He moved like a shadow, effortlessly weaving through the battle, his eyes locked on Aelira. As if sensing her, the man's gaze hardened, and in that moment, Aelira felt an intense, unsettling connection.
Time seemed to stretch, the world around her slowing as the man approached. He stopped mere feet away, and Aelira instinctively raised her sword. He didn't flinch, his expression unreadable.
"You shouldn't have touched it," he said, his voice low but full of authority. "The hourglass was never meant to be found."
Aelira's heart pounded as she held her ground, though uncertainty gnawed at her. "Who are you?"
He didn't answer immediately, his eyes flicking toward the hourglass in her hand, then back to her. "You'll understand soon enough. But for now, you need to leave."
Before she could respond, the world around them began to shift again, the battlefield warping as if it were being rewound. The man's words were lost in the chaos as the scene around her fractured, pieces of the past and future converging into an overwhelming blur. Time was breaking, unraveling.
The ground beneath her feet shifted again, and before Aelira could react, she was back in the village, kneeling beside the broken hourglass. Her pulse was racing, and her hands shook.
What had just happened? Was it a vision? Or had she truly traveled in time?
She didn't have the answers, but one thing was certain: the hourglass had chosen her.
And whatever force had taken her to that battlefield, it was only the beginning.