Elian looked down at his wrist. The display had returned to its steady glow, the main counter now reading 10:12:15. The temporal rift had been sealed, and this pocket of reality was safe once again.
He turned the crown clockwise, setting the coordinates for the temporal anchor. The numbers on the display blurred as they spun through countless calculations. He felt a sudden wave of vertigo as the ground beneath his feet seemed to shift, a side effect of the device interacting with the local space-time continuum.
He reached for the heavy, knurled crown at the top of the device. He unscrewed it carefully, feeling the precise click of the internal mechanisms. He pulled the crown out to its full extension, and the digital display began to pulse rapidly. "Now or never," he muttered. 440-2838-008.jpg
The wind howled through the narrow mountain pass, carrying the scent of impending snow. Master Elian pulled his heavy wool cloak tighter around his shoulders, his breath fogging in the freezing air. He looked at the device secured to his wrist, its brass housing gleaming faintly in the dim light of the setting sun.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a low hum resonated from the device, vibrating through his arm and into his chest. A faint, blue light emanated from the seams of the brass housing, growing brighter until it illuminated the snow around him. Elian looked down at his wrist
This was no ordinary watch. It was a prototype Chrono-Stabilizer, designated model 440-2838-008
He checked the central display of his chronometer. The digital readouts glowed a soft, steady white. The main counter read 10:10:30, and the secondary display below it held steady at 03. He breathed a sigh of relief; the timeline was holding, and the temporal rift was stabilizing exactly as he had calculated. He turned the crown clockwise, setting the coordinates
He gripped the crown tightly and pressed it back in with a firm click.