Chapter 1: The Shop That Wasn't There
Elias Thorne was a man of logic, but London's fog had a way of blurring the lines of reality. While walking home through an alley he had taken a thousand times, he found a door that hadn't been there yesterday. A faded wooden sign hung above it: "The Chronos Boutique – We Fix What's Broken."
Driven by a strange pull, Elias entered. The air smelled of ozone and ancient parchment. Behind a counter sat an old man with eyes the color of silver coins. He didn't look up from a golden pocket watch. "You're late, Mr. Thorne," the old man whispered. "By exactly thirty-two years."