The Glass City floated in tranquil beauty on the endless sea, its domes and spires refracting sunlight into dazzling rainbows that danced on the water’s surface. Every building, every street, and every object in the city was constructed of glass, from the soaring towers to the delicate bridges that linked them. Even the boats bobbing in the harbor were transparent, their smooth hulls allowing glimpses of the shimmering seaweed below.
The city was a marvel, a place of beauty and precision maintained by its people with meticulous care. Every crack was patched, every flaw polished to perfection. For centuries, they had lived on their floating sanctuary, believing it to be the last refuge in a world consumed by chaos.
Kael was an apprentice glazier, one of the many who toiled daily to preserve the city’s perfection. His hands were calloused from years of grinding edges and sealing fractures, and his mind buzzed with curiosity about the city’s origins. Like most of the Glass City’s residents, Kael had grown up hearing the tales: the world had been engulfed by storms and darkness, and the Glass City was the only place spared by the wrath of the seas.
But Kael wasn’t so sure.
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It started with the shard.
Kael found it buried deep within a pile of discarded scraps in the workshop of Master Aeren, the most skilled glazier in the city. The shard was unlike any glass Kael had ever seen. It was opaque and black as the void, its surface smooth but cold to the touch. It refracted no light, and when Kael held it up to his eye, it didn’t distort or magnify—it showed him something else entirely.
At first, it was just blurry shapes and muted colors, but the longer Kael stared, the more he began to see. Towers like those of the Glass City appeared in fragments, but they weren’t floating—they were submerged, their spires buried beneath layers of coral and sediment. Schools of fish darted between crumbling structures, their scales glinting in a strange, otherworldly glow.
Kael’s heart raced. What was this place? Could it be another city like theirs? Or was it... their city, long ago drowned beneath the waves?
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For weeks, Kael kept the shard hidden, studying it whenever he had a moment alone. The visions it showed him became clearer, revealing not only the underwater city but also glimpses of strange symbols and structures. He took notes in a small journal, sketching what he saw and trying to make sense of it all.
But secrets were hard to keep in the Glass City, where transparency was not just a material reality but a way of life. Master Aeren eventually noticed Kael’s distraction and demanded an explanation.
When Kael showed him the shard, Aeren’s face darkened with fear. “Where did you get this?” he hissed, clutching the shard with trembling hands.
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“It was in the scrap pile,” Kael stammered. “What is it? Why does it show—”
“You shouldn’t have touched it,” Aeren interrupted. “This... this is forbidden.”
“Why? What does it mean?” Kael pressed, but Aeren refused to answer. Instead, he locked the shard away in a vault and ordered Kael to forget it ever existed.
But Kael couldn’t forget.
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That night, Kael crept back into the workshop and retrieved the shard. He knew it was dangerous, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was important—too important to ignore. If the elders wouldn’t answer his questions, he would find the truth himself.
His first stop was the city archives, a sprawling glass library perched on the edge of the main plaza. Most of its records were mundane—accounts of repairs, lists of births and deaths, and minutes from council meetings—but hidden among the dusty ledgers, Kael found something extraordinary: a map.
It was old, its lines faint and its edges crumbling, but it clearly depicted a sprawling city of glass. What caught Kael’s attention, however, was that it didn’t match the layout of the Glass City. There were additional towers, unfamiliar bridges, and a massive central dome that didn’t exist in their current city.
Could this be the city he’d seen in the shard?
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Kael’s discovery set him on a dangerous path. Over the weeks that followed, he pieced together fragments of knowledge: accounts of storms more powerful than any the city had experienced, rumors of a great migration across the seas, and references to a “sacred fall” that had saved their ancestors.
The elders, he realized, had been lying.
The Glass City wasn’t the last refuge of humanity—it was a remnant of a world that had been lost, a piece of a larger puzzle that had sunk beneath the waves.
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Kael’s pursuit of the truth did not go unnoticed. Aeren confronted him one evening, his voice filled with both anger and sorrow.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” Aeren said. “The elders keep these secrets for a reason. If the people knew—”
“Knew what?” Kael demanded. “That we’re not the only ones? That there might be more out there? We deserve to know!”
Aeren sighed, his shoulders slumping. “It’s not just about the truth. It’s about what the truth will cost.”
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Kael’s final revelation came when he ventured to the outskirts of the city, where the great anchors that kept the Glass City steady plunged into the depths. There, using a diving bell crafted by Renna, a daring mechanic and Kael’s closest friend, he descended into the sea.
What he found confirmed his suspicions. The Glass City was indeed a fragment of a larger civilization—one that had been devastated by rising waters and shifting currents. Massive ruins loomed beneath him, their structures eerily similar to those above.
But there was more. Among the ruins, Kael saw movement—not fish or sea creatures, but people. Or something like people.
They were translucent, their forms shimmering like water. They moved gracefully among the ruins, tending to gardens of glowing coral and weaving nets from strands of light. One of them turned toward Kael, and their gaze seemed to pierce through him.
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Kael returned to the surface shaken but resolute. He couldn’t keep this knowledge to himself. The people of the Glass City needed to understand their history, their connection to the sea, and the truth about those who lived beneath it.
But as he prepared to reveal what he had learned, the sea began to churn. Storm clouds gathered on the horizon, and the water turned an ominous shade of black.
The Glass City, it seemed, was not ready to face what lay beneath.
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To be continued…