WITHIN A MOMENT OF ARRIVING, HE WAS SURROUNDED.

Half a dozen spear points flashed at his neck. Mori looked up. Tall, elegant figures, dressed in gold-trimmed robes surrounded him. Gauzy cloth draped from their wide-brimmed hats, obscuring their faces. A golden sundial, fashioned from a coppery metal, dangled at their hips.

"Citizen, this is a restricted area." The lead figure spoke in an even tone, no trace of emotion in their voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I..."

They found the timepiece at his waist and drew back. "Look."

The figures shifted, exchanging glances behind their veils. "Off-plane," one of them murmured, and the rest nodded. "From Arkos."

The group tensed. "Bring him inside."

One of the figures wrenched his arms behind his back. Mori lacked the strength to struggle. He stumbled alongside them, trying to clear his mind. The scenery here was different to Aurelios, so he figured he'd been sent to a different plane.

Again. Not a week ago he'd thought Arkos was the only plane. Now it felt like he'd visited a new one every day for the past week. He ran through the ones he knew in his head, trying to figure out where he was. This must be the second or third plane.

Mori forced himself to think. Ren would still be on Aurelios. Where was Argent?

He had no idea. From the way the guards here were treating him, it seemed he was the first to arrive. Argent could be anywhere.

Mori sighed. At the very least, it looked like they were taking him to the clock tower. If he could persuade whoever was in charge here to let him back up, he might be able to reach Aurelios in time, before something awful happened to Ren.

The guards led him through a chandelier-dappled entrance hall and up a seemingly endless flight of marble steps to a long throne room. Gilded columns lined the room, leading the way to a short platform at the other end. Two channels lay either side of the path to the dais, filled with sparkling water. Swans glided lazily along them.

The guards pushed Mori in front of the dais and retreated back a few steps.

"Clockmaker Terza," one said. "We found him in the courtyard. It looks like he's from Arkos."

"Arkos?" The woman turned to face him. A dark robe draped over her body. Splashes of scarlet embroidery marked the sleeves and the shoulders, fashioned into elegant poppies. Her long dark hair was tied back with a red silk ribbon. In a flash, she withdrew a small, slightly curved blade from a wooden sheath at her waist.

"It seems another rat has crawled its way out of that gutter," she said. Her dark eyes narrowed with distaste. "What are you doing here?"

"I..." Mori kept his eyes on the blade. "I need to get back to Aurelios. Suria's trying to destroy the clock towers."

"Don't be absurd," Terza said. "I know Suria well. She would never do such a thing."

"I've just come from there," Mori insisted. "She let the void into the tower, then attacked us when we got her out and took Ren. Elete and Arkos have already fallen. If we don't do something about it, she'll destroy even more."

Terza tilted her head back and let out a bitter laugh. "Is that what Ren told you? So she's a liar as well as a menace."

Mori narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"It's obvious you've misread the situation, led astray by the mistruths of your mentor," Terza said. "Suria would do no such thing. And the one responsible for the fall of Elete is none other than Ren herself."

Mori stiffened. "That's not true."

Terza regarded him with a steely gaze. "It brings me no pleasure to say this, but I wouldn't trust Ren. Iver was my close friend, and Ren's ignorant dabblings in a system she shouldn't have been interfering with claimed his life, as well as all the innocent souls on Elete." 

Terza's eyes grew ice cold. "As for Arkos, I wouldn't be surprised if Ren let that tower fall, too, and blamed the entire enterprise on Suria to protect herself. If Ren is in trouble now, it's almost certainly her fault. And frankly, not a reason for me to get involved." She sheathed her knife. "One less pest to worry about."

She waved a hand at the guards. "Take him out of the tower. And lock him up if he tries to return."

"No!" Mori cried. He pushed himself to his feet, bracing for a fight he knew he didn't stand a chance in. But before anyone could act, static buzzed throughout the room.

"Hold up one second, T." An unfamiliar voice spoke up. "I don't think you want to kill the kid just yet."

Terza's eyes flashed, but she lowered the knife. "It feels like I can't go ten hours without you interrupting, Bowman. Must this be done now?"

A chuckle filled the room. "You left the signal open. Besides, what he's been saying might ring truer than you think."

Mori glanced around the room, trying to pick out who had spoken. The veiled guards round the room were too far from him to be heard so clearly. He shook his head, wondering if his exhaustion was finally getting to him.

"For about the last few months, I've noticed some strange energy coming into Vanathos," Bowman said. "No link to the tower, just raw, untamed energy. The kind that only originates from outside the towers."

Terza's shoulders tensed. "From the void?"

"You got it. I did an investigation into it and confirmed it was coming from Suria's end, which is why I didn't bother you with details until now."

"But you changed your mind because...?"

"Because it cleared up only a few hours ago," Bowman said. "If what the boy is saying is true — that Suria let the void into the tower, and they just pulled her out of it recently, then the timelines check out. And if that's the case, then maybe we should be paying the rest of his story a little more consideration."

Terza looked up at the ceiling, exasperation. "Must we?"

"Specifically the part about Suria trying to destroy the system," Bowman added.

Terza shot Mori a filthy glace. "It's obviously a lie, he's trying to protect Ren. What could Suria possibly gain from destroying the towers?"

"Just listen to what he has to say," Bowman said. "Remember, our responsibility is to the towers, not the clockmakers. I know you're still angry about Iver, you have every right to be angry. But killing the clockmaker of Arkos is only going to make the system worse off. And ignoring a genuine threat to the system is nothing short of negligence."

Terza sighed and sheathed the knife. "Fine. I'll hear him out."

Terza provided him with a comfortable chair in a meeting room a few floors down. If he leaned back into the cushions and let the plush padding ensconce his body, he could almost ignore the rings of light binding his wrists to the chair. That he was a prisoner here, and each moment he spent stuck here was one with Ren at Suria's mercy, and Argent missing...

"So, what do you think?" The man in the chair across from Terza — or rather, the image of him — clasped his brown fingers together, surrounded by a ring of sundials. Mori had never seen anything like it: a device that let Terza and Bowman communicate across worlds. As Bowman had started to explain, before Terza cut him off with a glare, the metaphysical distance between their respective planes was the shortest of all the towers, making such a feat possible.

Bowman appeared a lot older than his voice made him seem. A svelte body, greying hair coiled into dreads and bunched together in a ponytail. The gentle creases around his face suggested late middle-ages, but exposure to the tower's energy prolonged their lifespan. He knew Ren had been the clockmaker on Arkos for about thirty years, despite the fact she appeared in her mid-twenties. He wondered how many years Bowman had been a clockmaker for.

"I think it a ridiculous story." Terza said. "Does he really think I'd believe that Suria would even contemplate such a thing?"

"The void is a powerful force," Bowman said. "I don't doubt it could have a corrupting effect."

"Clockmaker Terza!" One of the veiled figures burst into the room. "There's an intruder on the bridge! We've never seen anything like it. Another foreign clockmaker, yet she can command the timepieces like it was her own world—"

Terza leapt to her feet. "Ren," she growled, grabbing the dagger from the table.

Mori twisted to look, but the restraints at his wrists held him back. She's here?

"Terza," Mori called after her. "Please, let me talk to her."

"You must think me a fool. She has too many sins to atone for. Once I've dealt with Ren, I'll finish up with you." She motioned to the veiled guard. "Make sure he stays in here."

The figure nodded. "As you command."

"Well, sounds like you've got your hands full over there," Bowman said. "I guess I'll just excuse myself." He turned to Mori. "It was lovely to meet you. If you're ever on Vanathos, be sure to stop by and introduce yourself properly."

"Wait—"

Mori slumped back against the chair, simmering with frustration. How had Ren got here? Had she managed to escape? Or had Suria managed to sway her over so quickly?

Mori shook his head. She wouldn't.

Argent had told him Ren wasn't the type to give up. And Mori believed him. She wouldn't have folded so easily, not if it meant letting Suria destroy another tower.

But if what Terza had told him was true, and Ren had destroyed one once before...

He scanned the room for a way to escape. The sundial Terza had used to create the bindings was still on the table. Mori glanced over his shoulder at the guard, whose attention flickered between Mori and the growing commotion outside. He leaned forward, inching the chair along the edge of the desk as quietly as he could, stopping every time the guard glanced back to check on him.

"Stop!"

He'd been spotted. Mori made a desperate lunge for the timepiece, but only succeeded in knocking it off the table. Mori shuffled over and kicked the sundial as hard as he could across the floor. It crashed against the wall and shattered. The bindings snapped away from his hands, and Mori pushed himself out of the chair.

The guard let out a shout of surprise as Mori barrelled into them. They both fell to the floor, tussling. Mori managed to wrench the spear from their grasp and drove it through their sleeve, pinning them against the ground.

"Sorry," he said, wincing as the guard cried out. He bent to rip the sundial from the figure's waist, then headed out of the room, following the noise. He had no idea what the commotion outside meant, but he guessed it wasn't good.

The corridors and throne room, once bustling with guards, were dead silent, and as Mori headed deeper into the clock tower, he soon realised why. The tower was the scene of a one-sided battle: guards lay bloodied in the corridors leading to the system room, their weapons shattered and clothes stained red.

Mori bolted past them, into the final corridor before the system room. Ren and Suria faced off against Terza, brandishing a bloody knife, and five of her guards. They summoned rippling golden shields from their sundials, forming a continuous shield that deflected their ongoing attacks.

"Ren, stop!" Mori shouted, jumping in front of her. Ren raised a hand. Pink light flared at her hand and slammed into him. Mori crashed against the wall and slumped to the ground.

"What did you do to her?" Mori said. "One of Bashko's timepieces?"

Suria let out a gentle laugh, like a bell pealing the dawn. "Bashko could only have dreamed of creating something like this. After the traveller stole his research for me, I realised the true potential of his work." Suria reached out and gently touched Ren's cheek. She didn't even flinch. "My power over her is absolute." She looked at Mori, sparkling in her eyes. "She'll do whatever I ask her to, and she'll do it because she wants to."

Terza stared at her, shock outlining her features. "So, it's true." Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth set into a hard line. "I'm ashamed of you, Suria. You call yourself a clockmaker?"

"I'm sorry, Terza," Suria said. "But it has to be done." She offered the older woman a hand. "Come back to Aurelios with me. You'll be safe there."

Terza's expression darkened. "And what of the rest of Mesembria?"

"You have a few minutes before Ren destroys the tower. I imagine you could evacuate most of your court before then."

"You must think me mad. I took an oath to protect this tower." Terza held her knife in front of her body. "And I'll die before I see it fall."

"Very well." She placed a hand on Ren's shoulder and leaned into her ear. "Take down the tower, could you? I'll clean up outside."

Ren nodded, no emotion in her eyes. "Sure."