The Imperial Academy of Advanced Sciences dominated the highest point in New Albion, its massive gss dome catching the midday sun like a artificial star. Gleaming airships docked at its upper levels, disgorging passengers in fine attire. Steam-powered elevators carried visitors upward along the building's exterior, offering dizzying views of the sprawling metropolis below.

  Mia had spent the morning preparing. She wore Calliope's finest outfit—a tailored jacket of deep burgundy with brass buttons, matching divided skirt, and leather boots polished to a shine. Her auburn hair was pinned in a neat arrangement that fttered her heart-shaped face while keeping it out of machinery. The overall effect was respectable but not ostentatious—perfect for a talented mechanic being considered for recruitment.

  As her vertical tram approached the Academy pza, Mia reviewed her pn. Attend the public exhibition, use Holloway's card to access the recruitment presentation, then find some way to slip away and locate the eastern wing's third floor. The mysterious "Tempus Project" had to be connected to Kael's soul fragment—why else would the system guide her here?

  The Academy's grand entrance hall took her breath away. Marble floors inid with bronze, soaring columns supporting a vaulted ceiling, and most impressively, a massive mechanical orrery that dominated the central space. Pnets and stars moved in perfect synchronization, driven by an intricate system of gears and counterweights.

  "Magnificent, isn't it?"

  Mia turned to find Professor Holloway beside her, impeccably dressed in his Academy uniform of navy blue with silver trim.

  "It maps not just our sor system," he continued, "but also the theoretical multiverse proposed by quantum mathematics. Each silver sphere represents a potential alternate reality."

  Mia's heart skipped a beat. Multiverse theories in a steampunk world? This couldn't be coincidence.

  "The exhibition will begin momentarily," Holloway said, checking his pocket watch. "The public dispys are in the main hall, but I suggest you save time for the recruitment presentation at two o'clock. That's where we reveal our truly revolutionary work."

  With that, he departed to greet other guests, leaving Mia to explore the exhibition. The main hall had been transformed into a showcase of Imperial innovation. Weaponry dominated one section—mechanized infantry suits, long-range targeting systems, and miniaturized explosives. Another area dispyed medical advancements: artificial limbs with unprecedented dexterity, mechanical hearts, and devices for purifying contaminated air.

  Impressive as these were, Mia kept her true objective in mind. She studied the public areas, noting guard positions and access points, memorizing the yout as she moved through the crowds.

  At precisely two o'clock, she presented Holloway's card at a discreet side door. The guard scanned it with a handheld device, then nodded respectfully. "Through the blue door, Miss Winters. Professor Holloway mentioned you specifically."

  The recruitment area was far less crowded—perhaps thirty potential candidates gathered in a lecture hall. Most appeared to be university graduates or military engineers, their expressions a mixture of ambition and nervousness. Mia took a seat near the back, closest to the exit marked "Staff Only."

  Professor Holloway appeared on the small stage, accompanied by a man whose very presence commanded attention. Tall and lean, with jet-bck hair and aristocratic features, he wore the Academy's elite uniform with director's insignia. But it was his eyes that made Mia's breath catch—ice blue and penetrating, so familiar yet set in an entirely different face.

  "Candidates, welcome," Holloway began. "It is my honor to introduce Director Alexander Thorne, head of our Advanced Chronological Research division and the Academy's youngest-ever executive."

  Alexander Thorne surveyed the room with cool assessment, his gaze briefly meeting Mia's before moving on. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, his voice deep and precise, "what you are about to see goes beyond conventional engineering. We are not merely building machines at the Academy—we are redefining the possible."

  The lights dimmed, and a projection appeared on the wall behind him—technical schematics for what appeared to be a massive, complex device.

  "The conventional understanding of time is linear," Thorne continued. "Past, present, future—proceeding in one direction only. But our research suggests otherwise." He activated a mechanism, and the schematic began to move, illustrating a process of energy flows and dimensional shifts. "The Tempus Project aims to observe—and eventually manipute—the temporal dimension itself."

  Murmurs rippled through the audience. Mia leaned forward, pulse quickening. The Tempus Project—exactly what she had been seeking.

  "Those who join our team will be contributing to potentially the most significant breakthrough in human history," Thorne stated. "The ability to observe past events with perfect crity. To calcute future probabilities with unprecedented accuracy. And perhaps, one day, to move between temporal pnes."

  As Thorne eborated on the theoretical foundations, Mia studied him intently. The rigid posture, the precise gestures, the detached intelligence in those ice-blue eyes—all reminiscent of Kael, yet different. Where Kael had been a warrior with hidden depths, Thorne was a scientist with hidden fire.

  Holloway took over, expining the recruitment process, but Mia was hardly listening. She needed to get closer to Thorne, to confirm what her heart already knew. This was the soul fragment she sought—the reason the system had guided her to the Academy.

  The presentation concluded with a brief question period. While the other candidates clustered eagerly around Holloway, Mia noted that Thorne was already leaving through a side door. This was her chance.

  Slipping into the "Staff Only" corridor, she followed at a discreet distance. The hallway led to a bank of private elevators. Thorne entered one, selecting a floor. As the doors closed, Mia glimpsed the number on the control panel: 3.

  Third floor, eastern wing—exactly as the journal had indicated.

  When the elevator returned, Mia hesitated. Using it would require a security code she didn't possess. But adjacent to the elevators was a maintenance access door. Checking that no one was watching, she tried the handle. Locked, but locks had never been an obstacle for Calliope Winters.

  From her tool pouch, she extracted a slender pick set. Thirty seconds ter, she was inside a service stairwell. Climbing quickly but quietly, she reached the third floor and paused to orient herself. If the main elevators faced north, then the eastern wing would be...

  Mia followed the maintenance corridor, occasionally checking her position against pipes and conduits beled with directional markers. Eventually, she reached a heavy door marked "ACR Division - Authorized Personnel Only." The Chronological Research division. She'd found it.

  The lock was more complex, but yielded to her tools after a minute of careful manipution. Heart pounding, she eased the door open and slipped into a dimly lit boratory space.

  The Tempus Project dominated the center of the room—a massive apparatus of brass, crystal, and pulsing electrical components. It resembled the orrery from the entrance hall, but infinitely more complex, with parts that seemed to fade in and out of visibility as she watched.

  "I wondered if you would find your way here."

  Mia whirled around to find Alexander Thorne watching her from the shadows, arms crossed, expression unreadable.

  "Most impressive, Miss Winters. Especially considering this area requires delta-level security clearance."

  "Director Thorne, I can expin—"

  "Can you?" He stepped closer, those ice-blue eyes studying her with analytical precision. "Can you expin why a mechanic's daughter from Copperton would risk imprisonment to break into a cssified research facility? Or why, upon seeing the schematics for the Tempus Project, your pupils dited and your pulse—visible at your throat—accelerated dramatically?"

  Mia swallowed, mind racing for a pusible expnation.

  "Or perhaps," he continued more softly, "you could expin why, since the moment I saw you in the lecture hall, I've been experiencing what can only be described as memory fshes of events that never occurred."

  Her eyes widened. "What kind of memory fshes?"

  "A courtyard. Stone walls. You, dressed differently, holding a practice sword." He frowned. "Impossible scenes, yet they feel... real."

  "Kael," she whispered.

  Something fred in his eyes—recognition, confusion, anger. "That name... how do you know that name?"

  Before she could answer, an arm bred throughout the facility. Red lights pulsed along the ceiling as a mechanical voice announced: "Security breach detected in ACR division. All personnel initiate containment protocol."

  Thorne's expression hardened. "They've discovered your intrusion."

  "I need to leave," Mia said urgently. "Please—"

  "Yes, you do." To her surprise, he moved not to detain her but to a control panel near the wall. "This maintenance shaft leads to the service levels. From there, you can access the delivery bay on the ground floor." He activated a hidden door. "Go now, before security arrives."

  "Why are you helping me?"

  Thorne paused, conflict evident in his face. "I don't know. Logic dictates I should detain you as a potential spy. But something..." He touched his temple, wincing slightly. "Something tells me we've met before, in a different life."

  The arms grew louder. In the distance, boots thundered on hard floors.

  "The Tempus Project," Mia said quickly. "What is it really for?"

  "To observe temporal echoes—ripples in time from other realities." His gaze locked with hers. "We've detected a particur frequency that suggests the existence of parallel worlds where the same souls manifest in different forms."

  "I can tell you more," she promised. "But not here, not now."

  He hesitated, then pressed something into her hand—a small brass key. "Tomorrow night. The Celestial Gardens on the western ptform. There's a private observation deck that this unlocks." His expression became distant, almost clinical again. "Now go, before I reconsider this irrational decision."

  Mia slipped into the maintenance shaft as footsteps approached the boratory door. As she descended through the service levels, navigating by emergency lighting and Calliope's instinctive knowledge of mechanical systems, her mind reeled with the implications.

  Alexander Thorne was unquestionably Kael's soul fragment in this world. But unlike in Aldoria, he already suspected something unusual about his existence. The Tempus Project was somehow detecting cross-world connections—perhaps even the prison created by the gods to contain Noir's fragmented soul.

  By the time she emerged from a delivery entrance and blended into the crowd of departing exhibition visitors, Mia had formed a new understanding of her mission. She wasn't just finding Kael's soul fragments; she was helping them remember their true nature.

  And tomorrow night, at the Celestial Gardens, she would begin that process with Alexander Thorne.