Chapter 5: The Ties That Bind
I woke to the sensation of weightlessness, my body suspended in a sea of warmth and light. For a brief, blissful moment, I thought I was floating in a dream—one of those gentle, surreal moments between waking and sleeping where nothing seems quite real.
But then the warmth receded, and the light dimmed, leaving only the cold, hard truth in its place.
I was alone.
I blinked my eyes open, the world coming into focus around me. I was in a room, but not any room I’d ever seen before. The walls were smooth and metallic, curved in a way that made the space feel both futuristic and ancient at once. Soft blue lights pulsed from the ceiling, casting a strange, ethereal glow over everything.
Where am I?
The last thing I remembered was the ground giving way beneath me—the fractured timeline collapsing as we fell. I’d reached for him, felt his hand slip from mine, and then… nothing. Just darkness. Silence. And now, this.
I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy, weighed down by exhaustion and something else—a deep ache that throbbed in my chest, a sense of loss I couldn’t quite shake.
He was gone.
The thought hit me like a punch to the gut, and I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting back the wave of panic that threatened to overtake me. I didn’t know where he was, or even if he was alive. The void had swallowed us whole, and now, I had no idea how to find him again.
But I would. I had to.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to stand, wincing at the soreness in my muscles. Whatever this place was, it wasn’t the fractured future we had just escaped. And that meant there was a chance—no matter how slim—that I could still find him.
I just had to figure out where I was.
The door to the room slid open with a quiet hiss, and I stepped cautiously into the corridor beyond. The same soft blue lights lined the walls, leading down a narrow hallway that seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions. I couldn’t hear anything—no voices, no footsteps—just an eerie, pervasive silence.
I hesitated, unsure which way to go, when a familiar voice echoed from behind me.
“You always did have a way of finding trouble.”
I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. There, standing at the end of the corridor, was a figure I hadn’t seen in years. A face I had almost forgotten.
“Cora?” I breathed, disbelief washing over me.
She stepped forward, a wry smile playing at the corners of her lips. Her dark hair was longer now, streaked with silver at the temples, but her eyes were the same—sharp, intelligent, filled with that same mixture of amusement and exasperation I remembered so well.
“I should’ve known you’d be at the center of all this chaos,” she said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall. “Wherever there’s a time loop, there’s Elara, causing trouble.”
My heart pounded in my chest, a mixture of relief and confusion swirling in my mind. “How are you here? I thought—”
“Long story,” she cut in, waving a hand dismissively. “Let’s just say I’ve been keeping an eye on things.”
I frowned, taking a step toward her. “Keeping an eye on things? What does that mean?”
Cora sighed, pushing off the wall and walking toward me. “It means you’ve gotten yourself tangled up in something way bigger than you realize, Elara. Time isn’t just a series of random events strung together. It’s a web—delicate, interconnected—and you’ve been pulling on threads you shouldn’t be touching.”
Her words sent a chill down my spine. “What are you talking about?”
She glanced around the corridor, then gestured for me to follow her. “Come on. It’s not safe to talk here.”
I followed her down the winding corridor, my mind racing with questions. Cora had been my closest friend before all of this—before time travel, before the stone, before… him. But she had disappeared years ago, vanishing without a trace. I had always assumed she was lost somewhere in time, another casualty of the tangled web she had just described.
But now, here she was, standing in front of me like no time had passed at all.
She led me to a small room at the end of the hallway, the door sliding shut behind us with a soft click. Inside, the room was sparsely furnished, just a table and two chairs, but it felt strangely safe—like we were hidden from the world outside.
Cora sat down, gesturing for me to do the same. I hesitated for a moment before sinking into the chair opposite her.
“You’re in over your head, Elara,” she said quietly, her eyes locking onto mine. “This isn’t just about you anymore. There are forces at play here—people who will stop at nothing to control time. And you’ve put yourself right in the middle of it.”
My stomach twisted with unease. “You’re talking about the stone, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “That artifact you’re carrying—it’s more dangerous than you realize. It’s not just a key to time travel. It’s a weapon. And the people who want it? They’ll tear apart timelines, entire worlds, to get their hands on it.”
Her words sent a shiver down my spine. “Who are they?”
She paused for a moment, her expression darkening. “There’s a man. I don’t know his real name, but he’s been following you for a while now, pulling strings behind the scenes. He’s dangerous, Elara. More dangerous than you can imagine.”
A cold realization settled over me. “The shadow—the one that’s been chasing us…”
Cora’s jaw tightened. “That’s him.”
I swallowed hard, my mind spinning. Whoever this man was, he had been behind everything—from the moment I’d first stumbled into the alley of forever, to the fractured future we had barely escaped. And now, he was after me, after the stone I carried.
But why?
Before I could ask more, the door to the room slid open with a soft hiss, and a figure stepped inside. I stiffened, my heart racing as the man from the stars—my stranger—entered the room.
He stopped when he saw me, his eyes widening in surprise. “Elara,” he breathed, his voice filled with relief and something else—something deeper.
I stood, my pulse quickening. “You’re here. You—”
But before I could finish, he crossed the room in quick strides, his hand reaching out to cup my face. His touch was warm, familiar, and it sent a flood of emotions rushing through me. I leaned into his hand, closing my eyes for a moment, letting the relief wash over me.
“I thought I lost you,” he murmured, his voice low, filled with something raw and unspoken.
For a moment, the world seemed to fall away. The tension, the danger—it all faded into the background as we stood there, connected by something deeper than time itself.
He leaned in, his lips brushing mine in a kiss that was both tender and urgent, as if he were trying to make up for all the moments we had lost. My hands found their way to his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart beneath my fingers. I kissed him back, letting the warmth of the moment sweep over me, melting away the fear that had been clinging to me for so long.
But even in that moment, a part of me knew it couldn’t last.
We pulled apart, our breaths mingling in the small space between us, and I could see the conflict in his eyes. There was something he wasn’t telling me—something he was still hiding.
“We don’t have much time,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “They’re coming for us.”
I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, but before I could, the door behind him burst open, and the room was flooded with light.
***
Figures in dark, shadowy uniforms stormed into the room, their weapons raised, and in that instant, I knew—they had found us.