Chestown -

As the sun began to crest the surrounding peaks, Elias saw them—the shadows. They weren't moving with the light. While the sun rose in the east, the shadows of the chimneys and trees remained stretched toward the west, frozen and deepening. They were becoming physical, ink-like pools that seemed to swallow the color of the stones beneath them.

The envelope was cool to the touch and bore no address, only a wax seal in the shape of a key. Inside, a single sentence was written in ink that shimmered like mercury: Chestown

Elias Thorne was the only one awake when the Great Gear of the central plaza shuddered. As the town’s third-generation clockmaker, Elias knew the rhythm of Chestown better than his own heartbeat. But that morning, the rhythm skipped. As the sun began to crest the surrounding