## The Weaver’s Bloom The dust tasted like regret. It coated everything in Veridium – the crumbling facades of jade-carved buildings, the cracked paving stones under Elara’s boots, even the inside of her throat. Veridium was dying. Everyone knew it.…
## The Echo Architect Rain beaded on the grimy window of Unit 47, blurring the neon-slicked streets outside. Alva traced a pattern on the condensation with a nicotine-stained finger, barely registering the droplets as they slid down to pool at…
## Bloom & Fracture The hum vibrated through Elara’s bones, a constant thrum beneath the manufactured dusk. Sixteen leagues down, past the shimmering algae vats and hydroponic forests, lay Section Gamma-Nine. Her shift began. Not that it mattered much anymore.…