The City Of: God

Kael was a "Light-Tender," one of the few permitted to touch the Core—a pulsating orb of pure divinity that kept the city afloat and the gardens in eternal bloom. For centuries, the High Priests taught that the Core was a gift from a creator who had abandoned the "Sullied Earth" below to reward the pure.

Curiosity overrode his fear. He pressed his ear to the quartz casing and heard a faint, melodic weeping. As he adjusted the resonance of his tuning fork, a voice—ancient and exhausted—echoed in his mind. The city of God

"Let me fall," it whispered. "The weight of their perfection is crushing me." Kael was a "Light-Tender," one of the few

With a heavy heart and a steady hand, Kael didn't perform the nightly maintenance. Instead, he reversed the polarity of the stabilizers. He pressed his ear to the quartz casing

One evening, while scrubbing the conduits of the Great Spire, Kael noticed a rhythmic vibration coming from the Core. It wasn't the usual hum of power; it sounded like a .