The Iron Loom

In the smog-wreathed metropolis of Aethelburg, where clockwork behemoths claw at the sky and the arcane science of æther intertwines with Victorian ingenuity, time is not a river but a tapestry woven on the colossal looms of the Guild of Temporal Artisans.  These machines, powered by a volatile blend of steam and æther, craft not only exquisite silks but the very threads of reality. When Master Weaver Jorven Clyth detects a dissonance in the loom’s rhythmic clang, a tremor in the ætheric flow, his warnings are dismissed by the ambitious Guild Masters. But Jorven’s fears are realized when an experimental loom fractures Aethelburg's timeline, unleashing a torrent of temporal anomalies. Streets twist into impossible loops, citizens vanish into echoes, and whispers of the past and future bleed into the present.
Convinced a darker force is at play, Jorven seeks the aid of Ilyra Vanthe, a brilliant but ostracized historian whose heretical theories speak of a First Æther Age and a far older, more potent technology.  Their investigation plunges them into Aethelburg’s shadowy underbelly, where whispers of conspiracy mingle with the hiss of illicit æther stills. They navigate a web of deceit, encountering shadowy figures within the Guild, ruthless industrialists profiting from the city’s instability, and the enigmatic clockwork mechanic Kaelen Rhys, whose allegiances shift like the fractured timeline itself.
As Jorven and Ilyra unravel a conspiracy that stretches back generations, they discover the looms are not tools of progress but instruments of control, wielded by the Chronomasters, a hidden faction within the Guild who manipulate time to maintain their power.  The rift widens, twisting not just the city but the very minds of its inhabitants.  Temporal echoes — ghostly remnants of past selves — whisper warnings, adding another layer of complexity to their desperate search for answers.  They uncover a devastating truth: the Chronomasters have been altering individual timelines, weaving their influence into the very fabric of personal histories. To mend the fractured timeline, Jorven and Ilyra must confront the possibility that their own identities, their memories, are interwoven into the fraying tapestry of time.  Saving Aethelburg may require them to unravel themselves, to sacrifice their personal histories for the city’s future.  But the threads of time, once broken, can never be truly mended, only rewoven into a new, potentially more perilous design. As the city teeters on the brink of collapse, Jorven must choose: uphold the established order, or embrace the chaotic potential of a future unwritten. The fate of Aethelburg, and perhaps time itself, hangs in the balance.