The Voyage of the Lost Time
In a small, moorish town of Cybna, lived a watchmaker named Henry Ardean. Henry was not your ordinary horologist. He was known for his intricate, antique timepieces that weren't just objects to measure time, but they were an artwork, a memory to own. Unmarried, with no kin, his timepieces were his sole family.
Henry had a rare piece of artifact, a golden mantle clock, tucked away in his basement. It wasn't a sale item, but an enigma he was trying to unwind. This clock was no ordinary; it was rumoured to have the power to manipulate time. As enigmatic as it was, it had no hands on its face, just spiraling numbers with intricate design etched onto them, reminiscent of a dormant labyrinth.
One stormy night, in the flickering candlelight, Henry was studying the clock closely. His fingers traced the carved pathways that seemed like serpents from some angles and like a peacock's spread tail from others. He turned the empty face of the clock several times until he heard a small click. Suddenly, the room around him began to spin.
When he reopened his eyes, Henry found himself standing at the Cybna square. The peculiarity struck him immediately. The square, bustling even during nighttime, was eerily silent. The architecture was the same, but the town seemed different. Staggering towards the familiar, he looked at the town date stone, and catch his breath. The date read, 'March 3, 1897'. He was flabbergasted, disbelieving the visual reality. But soon, the slowly seeping reality washed over him, he had traveled back in time and that golden clock was the key!
Henry decided to seize this rare opportunity. The next day, he went to his own watch shop, only to see his younger version, Samuel Ardean, his father, behind the counter. Samuel was thrilled to meet Henry, who introduced himself as a distant relative. Henry observed carefully his father's technique, absorbed the love he put into every ensemble, the very love that he himself used in his creations. They shared laughs, stories, and Henry even told him a few advanced techniques. It was a bond he could never create before, a timeless memory he engraved in the back of his mind.
After a week, Henry decided it was time to leave. He thought about the golden clock and focused on returning, but nothing happened. He panicked, then calmed himself down and decided to attempt another way. Remembering the labyrinth pattern and tracing them in the same way he did before, he waited for the translucence to take over. Once it did, he was back to his own time. His experiment was successful.
Over time, Henry learned to control this unique power of his timepiece. He didn't abuse it but used it to experience life differently, to live the moments lost and to learn from the insights and wisdom of the past. He expeditiously went back to save a village from a fire by informing the townsfolk ahead, he visited famous personalities in private, he even went back to give himself advice.
However, as he got older, he realized some things were meant to stay unchanged. He found that he couldn't change any major event that altered the course of the world or even his life. Anything he did had only minor consequences and that the greatest force of the universe - Time- was a constant, unyielding to manipulation.
In his final years, he stopped using the clock completely. He became a symbol of wisdom and guidance for Cybna. He shared his life experiences but never revealed his time-traveling expeditions. After his death, the golden clock was lost, perhaps waiting for the next chosen one to confide in its secret.
Henry's story serves as a reminder that the power to change time doesn't necessarily mean the power to change destiny. It was a journey from The Voyage of the Lost Time, craftily blending the tension between man's curiosity and the eternal laws of the universe. Time was his teacher, his mentor, who taught him lessons in a way no other could. For in the end, even if Henry could travel across time, he was still bound by it. Just as we all are.