Robert Baron IV carefully tucked the article into the pocket of his black suit, where he’d collected several dozen pages of notes on his quest to understand the phrase. Unlike his predecessors, he was far more cautious, and more open to certain possibilities. In the last two decades, he’d endlessly ruminated on how to restore his family’s fortune and fame. The precious pendulum was missing, but perhaps there was another way. Time travel certainly seemed absurd, but if it existed, he knew it could be the answer to recovering his family’s lost fortune. He could rewind the years and prevent the fire from happening, the same way Elbert had apparently sought to touch time and reverse it.
He unfolded one of those other notes and reread the short poem he had come across while conducting his research.
One in which all is foretold,
One in which lie gifts of gold,
One in which past days unfold.
He had gleaned the rhyme off an odd trio of travelers a few years ago. He’d chanced upon them in a dank tavern north of New York City, not far from Candlewick. After a few merry mugs of ale, the eldest of the travelers revealed to him that they were on a quest. For several years now, they had been trying to find three valuables that only a handful of people throughout history have known about. The trio had apparently gone all over the world in search of these treasures.
“The three treasures are all connected,” her companion clarified, scratching his bushy beard.
“That’s right, legend says time broke into three pieces long ago, and each piece is hidden somewhere in the world,” said the third traveler, a middle-aged woman with a large backpack. The dim lightbulb hanging above her head revealed a small tattoo of a compass rose on the back of her neck, underneath strands of coarse hair that had come loose from her ponytail. On closer inspection, Robert Baron IV realized all three travelers bore the same insignia—on the wrist of the elderly woman, on the forearm of the man with the beard.
“We’ve been searching for one particular piece for about twenty years,” the traveler continued. “Old Claudia here has searched for over seventy.”
The wrinkled woman next to her nodded. “I was one of the first in the group,” she said. “I’m the only one of us who knew the original founder. He was a brilliant man. An odd one for sure, but brilliant. He committed himself to the quest practically his entire lifetime, then suddenly quit. Said he’d finally come to terms with his past.”
“Elbert the Eccentric,” the others chuckled.
“He had a loyal following even after he retired, people dedicated to finding the treasures in his stead,” continued the traveler with the backpack. “We all pay our respects any time we’re in the area. He’s buried not far from here.”
“Of course, our group’s membership has changed throughout the years,” Claudia said. “But new and old members alike, we are all united in the search. We each have our own theories on what powers the pieces hold. You’ve heard such stories, I’m sure. Stories of cursed objects that bring death. Stories of strange people who pop up at random times throughout history, who never seem to age. Of course, most of those stories don’t have much meat to them, details-wise, so for us they’ve ended up being dead ends.…”
“Well, there was one good lead,” interjected the man with the bushy beard, banging his sloshing mug of beer on the counter. “A piping hot lead.”
The woman with the backpack groaned. “Not this again, Sam—”
“Those humanitarians,” the tipsy traveler went on. “You know they found something big, Marlene. Suddenly stopped joining us in our expeditions. Said they were taking a break. I knew something was fishy at the time. Should’ve made them explain themselves that night at their house—”
“You’ll have to forgive us, Sam gets riled up easily,” said the traveler called Marlene with an apologetic glance at the newcomer. “First of all, we have no proof. It was likely just a harmless toy—”
“It was real and you know it,” argued Sam. “They found it on their own and kept quiet about it.” He turned to Robert Baron IV and said, “When the Tripps wouldn’t tell us anything, we questioned their neighbors. One of them had a story that the Tripps appeared from thin air one evening, wearing winter coats when it was eighty-five degrees out. And then another time, another person claimed to have met the Tripps—exactly as they were—fifty years ago as a child. Said they looked exactly the same.”
Robert Baron IV had straightened up in his seat. “You’re saying this—this object that your former comrades found—it allowed them to travel to the past?”
The three travelers glanced at one another uneasily. The tipsy traveler blurted, “Oh, to the devil with it!” With a hiccup, he turned in his stool, nearly falling off in the process, and said, “One of the pieces we were looking for is supposed to rewind time. And based on the stories, it sounds exactly like what Lin and Thomas Tripp had found.”
“The rumors were indeed odd,” murmured Claudia. “But even if they were true, I’m sure they had their reasons for not being forthcoming with us. They always liked helping people, and perhaps there was something that had more pressing needs than our simple fascination. Perhaps they realized the item was dangerous. Perhaps something that powerful can wreak havoc on the world.” The old woman bowed
