Back Across Time: The Fractured Self

By Joshua Osswald

At the end of Book VI: The War of Timekeepers, Joshua Osswald was left without a machine-his last battle against a bloodline rival resulting in its apparent destruction. But what if the machine wasn't just a device... but a reflection of its user?

The Fractured Self emerges from that quiet chaos.

Stripped of tools, allies, and direction, Joshua is cast into a realm beyond chronology-where fractured versions of himself wander separate timelines: a tyrant who seized control, a teacher who never traveled, a child who died young, and others shaped by forks in time. Each represents a choice not taken... or perhaps taken in an alternate strand.

This story unfolds not in a single location, but within a labyrinth of memory, regret, and echoing timelines. Here, the past is a library, the future a whisper, and every identity Joshua might have been becomes both threat and clue.

Drawing on themes hinted at since Book I-identity, legacy, guilt, redemption-The Fractured Self turns the time-travel saga inward. For the first time, Joshua must confront himself across multiversal reflections.

Why is this important?

Because to move forward, he must be whole.

Only by accepting the totality of who he is-failures, triumphs, and forgotten versions-can he restore the timeline... and reclaim his role as the Timekeeper.

In The Fractured Self, the war is not fought with gears or leaps-but with the soul's compass.

And the machine? It was never truly gone.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FT13WCNT
• ISBN13: 9798267443814
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"