The world froze at three seventeen in the afternoon. Of course, Mortenson Clara didn't know that at the time. She only understood later—more precisely, the next morning when she first saw a certain number, and in that moment, she couldn't breathe. The number's meaning, and how it overlapped with what she had done, made Clara unable to draw air into her lungs. But let's save that story for later. First, we must talk about the rain. --- The old city district of Chronos Metropolitan Area was called Sector 7. From the city center—that place where the 412-meter-tall Zero Hour Tower pierced the heavens and the azure light of temporal energy stained the night sky—approximately 14 kilometers to the southeast. A distance that took nearly twenty minutes even at full speed for the magnetic levitation train. There, old brick buildings leaned against each other in rows. Moss grew in the cracks of walls, and uneven stone pavement created puddles. The residents wore temporal conductors on their