
The City of Sinking Bones
The air in Vharrath reeked of salt and rust, a briny tang that clung to Kaelen Vey’s throat as he carved into the jawbone of a creature that had not walked the earth in centuries. The city itself was a…
The air in Vharrath reeked of salt and rust, a briny tang that clung to Kaelen Vey’s throat as he carved into the jawbone of a creature that had not walked the earth in centuries. The city itself was a…
## Bloomfall The air tasted like wet moss and ozone. It always did, this high above the Shimmering Canopy. Kaelen tightened his grip on the reins of his Sky-Strider, a creature resembling a cross between a lemur and a hummingbird,…
## Echo Bloom The wind tasted of rust and regret. Elara knelt, fingers tracing the skeletal branches of a petrified oak. Its leaves hadn’t fallen. They *became* stone, smooth and grey against her palm. Ten days. That’s how long it…
## The Loom’s Shadow Rain lashed against the viewport of the Weaver-ship, *Lyra’s Lament*, blurring the cityscape below into streaks of neon and gray. Inside, Elara traced a finger across the shimmering projection of fractured timelines – crimson fissures bleeding…
## The Cartographer’s Shadow The dust tasted of old parchment and regret. Elara spat, wiping a smear across the worn leather of her glove. The shard pulsed beneath her fingertips—a frantic heartbeat in the cavernous Archive. It depicted a harvest…
## The Pollen Memory The rust-colored dust tasted like regret. Old man Hemlock swore it held the flavor of every failed harvest, every lost face in Respite. I didn’t taste faces, just grit on my tongue and the metallic tang…
## The Echo Garden The salt spray tasted like grief on Dr. Aris Thorne’s tongue. She traced the pitted bone of a clavicle, cool beneath her latex glove. Not just any clavicle. This one pulsed with a faint, internal emerald…
## The Static Bloom The air tasted like burnt sugar and static. Not the crackle from a faulty receiver, but something deeper, coating the tongue like ash. Wren coughed, pulling the salvaged respirator tighter across her face. The filter did…
## The Shifting Shell The dust tasted like burnt cinnamon, clinging to the back of Elara’s throat. She pulled her cowl tighter, shielding her face from the perpetual grit swirling around the Crawler’s legs. Not real legs, not anymore. They…
The dust tasted like old pennies. Old pennies and regret. Kaelen traced a fingertip across the basalt face of a crumbling sentinel. It wasn’t stone, not exactly. More like…compressed night. The air hummed, a low thrum against his teeth. He’d…
The peaks clawed at a bruised sky, broken teeth against the fading light. Dust devils danced across the shale, ghosts of arguments long settled. Old Man Tiber, they called me, though I hadn’t earned the name through age. It was…