The Fallen City

|Chapter VII: Call to Innocence

Gale's eyes opened to the skyline of the City. Never did it cease to inspire, never did it cease to amaze. Even though he'd seen it all before, that very same day even, it's like it was being seen anew again. The City seemed to glisten today. It always did but today it was like it really shone, layers of settled dust had been blasted away. The boulevards, causeways and skywalks, at least those that remained, had been wiped near clean of debris.

But the aftershock had clearly hit the City as well. He noticed the skyline had changed: Spires had fallen; a district had collapsed far away from here; and fresh new crevices had formed down the twisting boulevards.

What glorious ruin...

Today wasn't a day to explore though. Today was a time to work towards his mission. His mind wandered over several theories. Many of them were already fruitless, and some, less so...

He needed something further reaching than a radio, convincing people was one thing, proving it was the hard part...

Gale walked as far into the room as he could, his mind continued to wonder. He took one last look around it, he looked for a hint. Something, anything. There was no such thing as coincidence.

He thought back over the day before. Somehow, almost without meaning to, he found himself downstairs again. He stared at the empty doorways, his mind trying to unravel its secrets in its silence. His eyes lingered on the two shattered doorways. The dividing wall between the two had been destroyed. Cracks larger than his fist had ripped into the walls. He felt around its internals, there was nothing to give away what it really was. It was maddening.

Gale looked back into the doorway that he saw the woman in. There was no sign anything had changed there. The burning fog rippled far brighter than before and blew in an invisible wind.

He just stared at the doorway. Its silent song spilled an eternity of myths and fuelled more ideas across his mind. It gave life to an almost tranquil grace, triggering a never ending desire to step inside it. He looked down, one foot had already stepped towards it. He had to focus, he had to think hard. He focused on a small pebble near his feet.

He admired its edges, as the neverending fire tried to pull him in.

It took every thought to repel it.

He drove his backfoot forward. His armoured boot sent the stone into the doorway, taking the unknown will with it. He watched as it passed effortlessly into that world, hanging in the air for moments just beyond the aperture. Its surfaces instantly froze. Its colours bcame muted. Dust blew from its surface, like the fire's same wind blew over it...

Or like something was shredding it...

It hazed over, as if having passed through another aperture on the other side. He watched it skip across the ground. It stood out too well. It didn't belong.

And then Gale had the idea...

His mind drifted across the room. He'd never noticed but its roof high above spelled it out plain and simple. It didn't confirm his thought, but it gave it the chance he wanted.

But it spelled out something many times more terrifying...

He ran. Gale just ran, he nimbly navigated the corridors, running from something, a monster almost. Like everything had become a monster. The sense of unease finally reached boiling point.

Something was very wrong with this place, and had been every moment he was in that spire. He had reached the atrium. The crystal spires of the City sang a song he could not hear. He was desperate for them, he moved as deep into the atrium as he could. Now would be his moment.