A pull, if she could put it that mildly, had been trying to persuade her ever since that weird pendulum had shown up. Words flickering like some sort of spell or exclamation that would bring her somewhere nagged at her more and more. It was persistent, getting more stubborn as she tried to ignore it. Whatever it was, that nagging and insistence, finally won out as she stood near to a clearing in the forest. It was a trek to get there but she was pissed and needed to take a walk to get over the most recent issue with tracking down that man who had cheated her and her family out of that partnership.

Repeating the words that had been nagging at her mind, she found herself moving even as she stood still. Shaking her head to reorient herself, she looked ahead and saw ruins. Well that would put it lightly, it looked like a clocktower and some other small buildings that were in shambles. Ahead was a road, broken bricks with dead grasses peeking up between them. The oddest part was how everything felt, she could feel a breeze where she stood but as she crossed the threshold, it was as if everything was frozen. It was silent, empty, and at first she considered just leaving but something pulled her forward.

Everything looked dead and withered, as if something terrible had happened here. Was this some weird problem that whatever had given her this thing wanted solved? How was it any of her responsibility? But that train of thought stuttered as something hit her.

Blinking, the clocktower in front of her was pristine, it’s chimes going off in accordance to the time as she felt herself walking. But… was she really moving? It didn’t feel right, not quite, more like she was a passenger or that this was something from before. It led forward, a hand coming into her view with slender yet roughed up fingers and broken nails, working hands. A ring glinted and she felt drawn to it.

It moved forward, this memory and she could hear the sound of the clock’s mechanisms. It filled her senses as both the sound and vibration went through her. Then it all shifted and she saw something move, a clock face broken and worn with the ring being placed behind it. The sound of the clock had ceased, the movement of the air going with it, and then she exhaled and shuddered.

Her eyes focused and again she stood before the ruined tower, where nothing moved and everything stood as it was left. Looking at her hand, there wasn’t a ring there but she felt like one would fit nicely. Taking shaky steps forward she followed the route that whatever that had been took her.

The dull sound of her heels on the brick was unsettling compared to the stillness and silence of this place. This was Spasskaya, her wonder, that she knew but now she had an inkling that it was more than just some random thing thrust on her. Maybe… that had been her? Or her before? It didn’t make sense but something felt like that was the case. How else would she see things of this place after never being her before?

The entrance to the clocktower was blocked and she had to work at it, moving fallen stones and shifting the wooden beam back up as best as she could. She needed tools, something to fix this, but she didn’t have anything on her really. So for now she wedged some of the stones back in place to try and keep the archway from collapsing again and blocking her exit. It wasn’t great but it let her duck inside. The floor looked like it had once been marble or some sort of stone, almost looking like a large clock face in the main open area.

It was dim, only lit by holes in the structure that let light in. As she felt along the walls, looking to see if she could get an idea of this place a bit more, she could feel hooks for lanterns and bumped her foot against the fallen and broken one on the floor. It was a mess, nothing like what she’d seen moments before. It made navigating through this all that much more difficult.

Each step was taken with caution because while she wasn’t afraid of anything in a place like this, she rather not fall through a rotting floor if there was a basement. Shaking her head, how would she know if there was a basement? Even with the bit of light coming in, it was hard to see the other walls she wasn’t directly next to.

Pulling her phone out, not even being remotely surprised by the lack of signal, she turned the flashlight on and used it to get a better look. Gasping slightly as the light revealed more of the building she was in, she marveled at the far wall. Instead of being solid stone, it was glass, or at least used to be, and she looked at the interlocking mechanisms of the main clock. The light wouldn’t reveal the ceiling far above but she did see the stairs finally and felt odd as she noticed the second set that descended beneath the floor.

The clockface beneath her wasn’t just for show, that much she could tell as her foot caught slightly on the edge of one of the broken hands. Something tattered was stuck on it, having caught the metal and must have weighed it down enough to have it warped as it was. Leaning down to look, she didn’t like the implication as she noticed more of those symbols that she had on her outfit lining the leather looking greave that still had something inside it.

Giving it space, she circled around it and progressed towards the stairs, following that path she’d been walked through while running her fingers over the carved stone. She couldn’t tell what language it was, couldn’t really even begin to guess what it might say either but she could tell a lot of work was put into this place.

Each stair seemed solid even if she could see missing chunks of the stone scattering as she disturbed them. It was a slow climb, giving her time to think over what she had seen and was currently seeing. Thoughts rolling around in her head about what this place had been and why she was supposed to be here. It didn’t feel strange though and that in itself felt odd to her. Why would a place she’d never been to feel like somewhere she’d been before.

“Hello?” Calling out into the silence, it didn’t echo much as she made it up to the next floor. The wall to her left was full of clockwork and the floor in front of it covered in a dusting of shattered glass. Casting the beam of light from her phone over the room, she saw floor to ceiling shelves and a work desk. On it a candle had melted down into a puddle which had cooled as it had dripped to the floor. Looking at it for a moment, she did wonder if time was just frozen or if it had just cooled like that. The hard wood of the work desk was covered not in dust but in papers, scattered schematics with notes written in a small but neat scrawl over the corners with arrows pointing to parts.

For now she left them, waving her light to look around the other walls of this room until it illuminated that same clock she’d seen in that odd memory or whatever it was. What once must have been an intricately decorated clock face now showed its age. Small greasemarks, ones left from scrambling fingers working over the same place time and time again covered what otherwise looked like a solid surface. The design was evenly worn down and as she felt around over it’s surface, something shifted and a small panel dropped to the floor. The hinges or mechanism that held it shut having broken over time even without use. Moving her light to get a look before she reached in, something glinted dully in response.

“Such a pretty ring…” One much nicer than the one she was supposed to have gotten in her marriage to Rene but that wasn’t an option apparently anymore. Picking it up, she felt some resistance as a thin gilded cord came with it. A letter lay in there but as she went to grab it, the thing felt too fragile to grab. It wasn’t as if she could read it, not if it was in whatever language everything else was here. Something for another day something once she fixed this place.

The thought had her tut before a small smile curled at the edge of her lips. How could she not come back? With such a tragically beautiful clock left in the state is was now. Then she felt something in the air, almost like a breath that had been held being let out. Turning away from the clock face as she slid the ring onto her finger, she smiled as she heard a sound she knew very well. The sound of a single tick of a clock.

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