## The Bloomkeepers The dust tasted like regret. Amelia spat, a gritty film coating her tongue. Around her, the sprawling expanse of what used to be Kansas shimmered under a merciless sun. Cracked earth stretched toward a bleached horizon, fractured…
## The Echo Weaver The dust tasted like regret. Dr. Elara Reyes kicked at a loose stone, sending it skittering across the cracked earth of the Xantus Valley. Twenty-eight years. That’s how long she’d avoided this place. The scent of…
## The Weight of Lilacs The desert wind tasted like sand and regret. Elias traced the lines on his calloused hand, watching dust devils dance across the cracked earth of Redemption Gulch. It was a town clinging to existence, its…