Ghost glass, Lily rolled the rock hard, thumb sized shard in her hands as she lay on her bed enjoying its relative coolness to her touch. The edges of this particular piece were smooth. Smooth as though the matter which had formed it had been rendered liquid for just an instant before coming to rest in this final form.

Her room was small, a rental at the town’s tiny inn, and sparsely furnished. It contained only a bed, an end table with a single drawer for all of one’s possessions, and a small fan fastened to the empty frame which served as its window. It wasn’t bad though. It had been built of raw deadwood. A rare commodity in most places and she enjoyed being surrounded by it.

Tonight was moonless but her room was illuminated by the subtle ethereal glow that oozed from the object in her possession. She had never seen ghost glass before, not in person. She knew about it, everyone knew about it. Those who still managed to cling on to wealth cherished it for use in rings, necklaces, and other adornments, but its price put it well outside of the reach of everyday men and women.

Lily rolled onto her side and set the shard on her end table, positioning herself so that its light could wash across her face. She felt soothed by its embrace.

The only known source of ghost glass up until now was “the event”. A meteor storm that had tipped an already reeling world over the precipice, descending it once and for all into its current state. Or so they say. That was a long time ago, hundreds of years at the very least. Over such a time history becomes legend, legend becomes myth, myth becomes religion, and then who knows what is true and what is just good story telling.

The crystals that powered most contraptions these days came from those meteors. They were wondrous things once you looked beyond the destruction they had wrought in their earliest moments. Rocks that stored immense power and, more importantly, offered it up for use by others without much fuss. A few metal wires pressed against their edges was all that was needed to coax it out for use.

Lily yawned, her mind still racing even as her eyes grew progressively more heavy.

But ghost glass, that was rarer still. It occurred only where meteor fragments directly collided with specific types of sand and soil. The heat of the impact fused the affected matter into splashes of glass imbued with the slightest touch of the meteor’s power. This process caused the glass to indefinitely glow a dim pale blue. This ghost glass though. It was man made, the first of its kind. Born unintentionally like many of humanity's most interesting discoveries. Her contraption had struck the sand with the might of a meteor and to her surprise had produced the same result.

She had donated the majority of the freshly minted glass to the town in penance. Bernard had indicated that her little experiment had broken three windows but it was actually closer to twelve, Brendine’s grandmother was half lost to the wind, and Joel’s thumb had indeed incurred a battle scar to remember. This was not good. Her project was no longer solely under her purview, from this point forth she would be dependent upon the drilling crew and the drilling crew was under the employ of the town itself. Leaving them battered and pissed off was not an option. This small piece though, she kept for herself. A memento of her grand project that she could carry with her even if the days to come all went to shit.

Her eyes fell shut.

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“Lilith Hogg,” Her full name rang out over the auditorium’s loudspeaker, promptly driving her to her feet behind her desk. Row six, column nine, section B. Her left hand gripped the edge of the desk's lacquered deadwood top, very smooth, very fancy. Her right adjusted the long slender black microphone which protruded from a base affixed to the desk’s very top edge. “Here,” her voice rang out in return over the same speaker.

“Present your thesis idea for approval,” The loudspeaker returned curtly. The source of the voice was the secretary for the review panel. A short brown haired woman in an earthen green outfit seated in the distance far below row six and the review panel which towered over her.

Lily swallowed hard and nervously shuffled her papers. She could do this, she knew she could do this, she had spent her first two years at the college preparing for this. “My thesis pertains to the usage of vibrations to map out an area's ground composition before we commence a drill project. I intend to construct the necessary equipment to prove this and revolutionise our approach to finding water.”

The auditorium style classroom was large but fell silent. Lily took a heavy breath, despite its immaculate upkeep the auditorium still held the musty scent of a place which had existed for centuries. She was ready for the panel's questions. She already knew how she intended to approach this. How the necessary components would be built. The experiments that would need to be performed. All of it.

The panel of five professors sat perched atop a massive podium that had been constructed of the same lacquered deadwood that constituted her desk. At its centre proudly stood the golden seal of the college, truly an opulent display. Their task was to interrogate each student about their final thesis and determine if it was worthwhile to proceed. An approved thesis received funding, and the college did not like to waste resources.

The professors whispered amongst themselves for what felt like an eternity. They didn't take this long for the previous students. Her thesis was bold, she knew that, maybe they couldn't think of anything to ask? No, there is no way that they weren’t going to put her through the most invasive of questioning. They must be concocting something really tough. But she was ready.

“Denied,” the secretary stated in a robotic tone, “Lilith Hogg, your next presentation has been scheduled for the hearing in three months’ time. Consult with your faculty representative for further guidance.”

Lily jerked her microphone closer to her lips, “But you didn’t even ask questions,” she exclaimed desperately! But her protests only reached the ears of the students seated around her, her microphone had already been cut dead.

“Sit down Lily! You’ll get yourself expelled.” a nearby classmate whispered with harsh urgency in their voice.

“But it’s not fair…” Lily whispered, her shock causing her to waver on her feet.

“When has anything been fair?” The classmate replied sharply, “Sit!”

Lily drifted back into her seat, the hollow feeling of her dreams crashing down upon her seemed to make her light as air. She was stunned. How could they deny her shot at innovation? The way things were done might have been fine generations ago, but now? There were more options, more advanced technology, life could be so much better!

“Martin Hornwell?” The speaker rang to life once more, calling out the next hopeful in the class.

“Here,” a young man’s voice replied.

“Present your thesis idea for approval.”

To Lily’s relief her eyes snapped open, the imposingly broad walls of the auditorium had melted away and the tight confines of her home at the edge of the known world seemed to wrap around her like a comforting hug. A dream. A memory. Nothing more. She gazed once more upon the gently glowing glass, “Now it’s my chance to show them,” she proclaimed into the empty night. But morning was coming, and tomorrow the drill would start. She needed to rest.