"I suppose you're out in our corner of the world to search for this." The old man's voice was rough and powerfully quiet. He narrowed his eyes, Ava knew, to check her reaction, and she kept her expression stern despite the desire to leap forward and snatch the trinket away from these strangers.

She'd expected it to be old, rusted, dusty, stuck on some long-lost hour. What lay before her, however, was ticking steadily, polished, and gleaming her own reflection back at her from its golden curved edge.

Her grandfather's pocket watch.

Or at least, that's clearly what this old man wanted Ava to think. She glanced at him suspiciously. She'd never actually seen the original watch, but there was one way to know if this was it.

The man flipped the watch over, as if reading her thoughts. There it was--the inscription that marked this treasure as her family's: ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρόν.

Redeem the Time.