They finally reached the Clockwork Spire. To their horror, they found the culprit: the previous Weaver, Elias's own mentor, Master Kaelen. Kaelen sat by the giant, rusted gears of time, cradling a small, glowing sphere.
"Why?" Elias demanded.
"In the flow of time, I lost my daughter," Kaelen whispered, pointing to the sphere. "Inside this second, she is still alive. She is laughing. If I let the clock tick, she is gone. I broke the world to save a smile."
Lyra stepped forward, her glass shadow flickering violently. "But because you stopped the clock, millions of lives are stuck in nightmares. You didn't save her; you imprisoned her in a cage of gold."
The conflict wasn't one of swords, but of philosophies. Elias realized that to fix the world, he would have to destroy the one thing his master loved.