The air above Conton City shimmered with the old, familiar hum of time manipulation—thin as a razor and just as dangerous. The Time Nest had never been still for long; even serenity there meant someone, somewhere, was about to tear a stitch in the timeline. But today the disturbance came like a frost-breath whisper: a ripple seeded not by a tyrant’s roar but by something older, runic, and patient.