Goldie Cylendar sat on the floor of her sister's room with a pocket watch flat against her palm. Sierra slept behind her. The watch was not magic. It was brass and glass and a tick you could count on. Goldie had stolen it from a market stall three winters ago, back when she was still learning that her hands could stop a clock without meaning to. She used it now to check herself. If she wanted the title of Time Keeper too much, the second hand jumped. If her want was clean, the hand walked steady. Tonight it walked steady, then stuttered at the twelve, then walked again. She wanted the job. Not the throne. Her aunt Bella had run both for seven hundred years because the two came stapled together, and now Bella wanted out. Goldie did not care who sat on a chair and settled quarrels over fences and grain. She cared that time itself had a keeper, and she knew, in a way no adult in the family would believe, that she was the one built for it. She had stopped time at twelve without meaning to. She had walked backward through an afternoon to find Sierra's lost shoe. The realm needed someone who felt the weight of a second. It did not need her to feel the weight of a crown. The trouble was Silver. Silver Powerforce was Bella's oldest, silver-haired and clipped in the mouth, and she led eight younger siblings without raising her voice. People followed Silver the way water follows a slope. Silver had already carried the crystal shard for Bella and passed. She would rule well. Goldie could see it plainly, and it stuck in her throat. Bella would choose Silver because Silver fit the whole job. Bella would not split the job in two just because a grumpy niece with Cyndi's last name asked her to. Goldie set the watch down and pressed the second hand with her thumb until the glass groaned. Then she lifted her thumb and let it go. The hand caught up on its own. She could not force the answer. She had to earn a test Bella had not thought to offer. She pocketed the watch and stood. She would go to the crystal tent in the morning, before Bella called for Silver again, and she would ask her aunt one question with a straight face: measure me for the keeping, not the ruling. If Bella refused, Goldie had her answer about how this family saw her. If Bella agreed, Silver kept the throne and Goldie kept time, and no one had to lose. Sierra turned in her sleep. Goldie pulled the blanket up to her sister's chin and closed the door behind her.