11. The Crow.

"Broken?" she repeated. It had seemed to be ticking just fine when he'd held the watch out before. In fact, she could still hear it through the man's coat pocket.

A scratching noise from above them interrupted her thoughts. "Damn crows," the man growled. "They been pestering me for weeks. Knew you was coming, I'll warrant." Ava didn't know what to make of that. 

He grinned. "Yes, it's broken, lass, that's why your granddad abandoned it in the first place. Made a right mess of things, he did. But," he added, holding out his hand expectantly, "if you allow me to translate that message you've got, we might be able to--finally--put it right." Ava glanced at Abe, who looked altogether flummoxed. Neither of them had mentioned the parchment, still folded tightly and hidden from sight in Ava's clenched fist.

10. The Study.

"What made you come back for it, anyhow?" the old man growled as he tucked the watch back into his waistcoat. He didn't wait for her to answer, but turned around and trundled into a back room, gesturing for Ava and Abe to follow.

Ava glanced at the younger man, who looked about as confused as she felt. "Come back?" she asked. "I've never been here before in my life." She tentatively followed him through the doorway, and was surprised by how dark the room was once Abe closed the door behind them. A single lamp glowed on the desk, and stacks of books and loose papers lined every corner.

The man laughed for the first time, a chuckle that startled his two companions. "Maybe you've never been here, missy, but we both know your family has. Your grandfather left this watch in that house to be forgotten--and for good reason, too! So why've you gone and ignored his wishes?" He glared at her again, waiting for her to answer--trying, she knew, to somehow intimidate her.

But she refused to be intimidated. "You shouldn't take things that aren't yours," she said coolly.

The man drew up a protective hand over the pocket where he'd tucked the watch. "And you should respect your elders." He turned around and picked up one of the leather tomes from the desk. "Besides," he said almost gleefully, "You won't want it now. It's not quite as...useful as it once was.

9. The Watch.

"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.

8. The House That Abe Built.

She stopped dead in her tracks. "What's wrong?" Abe asked as he turned back towards her. They were both a little out of breath from their tramp.

She tried to make her voice sound casual as she made her reply. "This is your house?" The cozy bungalow looked strikingly familiar to her. She knew she'd seen it before. But that couldn't be possible--she'd never been to the English countryside in all her life before this. And yet even the crossed slats on the dark wood siding stared back at her just as she expected, a taunting sort of déjà vu.

Abe, too, stared back at her, suspicion in his furrowed brow, and Ava was painfully aware how poorly she was hiding her alarm. "It's my father's," he finally answered. "But I live there with him. What about it?" 

She searched for a response. "It's just...really nice!" she finished lamely. Thankfully, this had a better effect than she expected.

Abe glowed with pride. "Worked on a lot of it myself," he said, and his chest swelled. "With my father, of course!" Satisfied at this explanation of her apparent shock, he continued down the grass toward the door with an extra skip to his gait. Ava, for her part, breathed a sigh of relief as she followed after him.

This wouldn't take long, she assured herself. Especially if the old man was as easy to maneuver as his cheerful son.

7. The Detour.

They passed under a weak-looking apple tree, and she tried to ignore the glittering spider web that hung heavy with the wet of the fading mist. She hadn't much wanted to leave the house, mysterious parchment or not, but Abe--as he loudly introduced himself through the window--had insisted his father would be able to translate it. 

He looked to be about her age, but he might have been a teenager for all his chatter as they trudged through the muddy field: Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she get into the attic? He barely took a breath between each question, which at least made it easier for her to avoid answering fully. She still needed to find that watch, and she wasn't about to let some farm boy get to it first.