The castle gates groaned under an unnatural wind as the figure approached, a man in a tattered coat of gears and silver thread, his left eye replaced by a whirring brass telescope.
"Halt!" Theo's ghost knights crossed their spectral spears.
The stranger didn't slow.
His boots were as accurate as a metronome, ticking with each step. He spoke in a voice that sounded like cogs grinding.
"The child's mark has awakened. The Broken Hour arrives.
Evangeline's prophecy mark burned gold for the first time since infancy, carving new sigils into her nursery walls.
Whiskerton took one look and fainted.
The Duke spat out his tea.
"A WHAT prophet?"
The Clockwork Man stood motionless in the guest room, oil dripping from his sleeve joints onto the imported carpets.
The Duchess eyed the stains with murderous intent.
"Time," the prophet said, "is breaking apart." The child's power is the keystone."
A metallic click echoed through the chamber as his chest panel swung open, revealing a miniature model of the castle, except half of it floated upside-down in shattered fragments.
Seated on Seraphina's hip, Evangeline grabbed for the gleaming screen.
"No," the prophet said, snatching her wrist.
Every candle in the room froze mid-flicker.
The new sigils swirling across Evangeline's mark were clearly visible up close.
A broken crown (the Duke's face went white)
A keyhole without a key (the fan of the Duchess broke)
And worst of all, a smiling doll (Selphina dropped her cutlass)
"That's the Laughing Empress' sigil," the pirate queen hissed. "She's been dead for centuries."
The sound of the clockwork man's gears grinding increased.
"Correction: She was erased. And now, she's rewriting herself back into time."
Evangeline's mark thumped in agreement.
Then the baby sneezed, and every clock in the castle ran backward.
…..
The noble House of Follicle convened an emergency session amid the chaos.
"TIME TRAVEL IS A WORKPLACE HAZARD," Dante's hair spelled out, braiding itself into a makeshift sundial. "WE DEMAND HAZARD PAY."
Lucien adjusted his spectacles. "Fascinating! The prophet's presence is causing localized worldly disruptions—"
A rogue time ripple hit, aging Lucien's left eyebrow forty years.
"WE ALSO DEMAND ANTI-AGING CONDITIONER," the hair declared.
"Easy," Selphina declared, slamming a bottle of rum onto the war table. "We kill time."
The Clockwork Man stared. "That is... not how temporal mechanics work."
"Yet." She grinned. "Ever punched a grandfather clock? Very satisfying."
Evangeline giggled and bent a spoon through time itself, leaving it suspending mid-air.
The prophet's brass eye zoomed in. "...Perhaps the pirate's approach has merit."