Then came Clara. She walked into his shop with a shattered pocket watch and eyes that held the weight of a thousand storms. When their hands met over the broken timepiece, the air in the shop seemed to vibrate.
"I don't believe in the marks," Clara whispered, her voice like velvet on stone. She pulled back her sleeve to reveal a chaotic smudge of grey on her wrist—a "Broken Mark" from a love that had burned out before it could bloom. "They are scars, Elias. Not gifts."
Elias looked at his own bare skin, then back at her. "Perhaps they aren't meant to predict the future," he said, gently prying open the watch. "Perhaps they just record the courage it took to open the door."