"Now, what is this?!"

More about "Now, what is this?!"

The deeper Kaelis went, the more the cave abandoned any pretense of being natural. The walls grew smoother, ribbed with cables almost petrified by time. The humming steadied into a rhythm, as if the place had found its heartbeat again and wanted her to hear it.

Her flashlight beam swept across a bend in the tunnel. Something ahead caught the light and threw it back in a fractured burst of color. Kaelis slowed, breath steady, the hairs on her arms prickling as she rounded the corner.

The wall rose before her like a mural from another world. Blocks of glass — no two alike, each a different shade — were fused together in a mosaic that shimmered with its own internal glow. Blues rippled like deep water, reds smoldered like embers, greens pulsed faintly in time with the machinery around her. The whole structure radiated an intentional beauty that didn’t match the utilitarian cold of the Old City’s tech. It felt older, crafted, almost ceremonial.

Kaelis touched one of the bricks. It was warm.

“That’s new,” she whispered.

The glass shifted under her palm. Not enough to move, but enough to acknowledge. Patterns of light flickered behind the bricks, forming shapes that dissolved before she could interpret them.