Chapter 224: Streams

The little town of Emberfield was like any other, tucked away between rolling hills and meandering streams, but at its heart stood a curious clocktower that seemed to defy time itself. No one knew who had built it, but its ticking echoed through the streets like a heartbeat, keeping perfect time for as long as anyone could remember. Yet the tower's true mystery lay within its walls, in a world few had seen—until today.

Elsa had always been drawn to the clocktower. From the time she was small, she would wander through the cobblestone streets and sit beneath it, listening to its steady ticking as if it were speaking directly to her. Over the years, she had come to learn every hour, every chime, and every faint whirr of its mechanisms. Yet, even as she grew older, she never imagined she would step inside. Not until the day the letter came.