So, she constructs an hourglass, her final work. A simple thing and yet the pièce de résistance of a centenarian artisan's life, the dust of a single scale of a destroyer of cities running through glass to measure the last years of her life.

I love that you took fear as being the killer of the protagonist's city (and perhaps herself). You looked deeper that I will admit to.

The snake I saw as a metaphor for time, which consumes all the works of man until they are just dust billowing on the wind.

In short, I much preferred your review to the story itself.