Beneath a brass sky, in the clockwork city of Aethelgard, the sun is a forgotten myth. Life revolves around the Luminary Almanac, a colossal orrery predicting the dance of unseen stars, its gears
Beneath a brass sky, in the clockwork city of Aethelgard, the sun is a forgotten myth. Life revolves around the Luminary Almanac, a colossal orrery predicting the dance of unseen stars, its gears whirring in perfect synchronicity with the city's intricate network of satellites. But for cartographer Adric Vost, a flicker in the Almanac's mechanism sparks an unsettling suspicion: what if the sky above is nothing more than a meticulously crafted illusion? Armed with intricate goggles of his own design and a thirst for truth, Adric's quest leads him to Penra Solvane, a brilliant linguist who deciphers the forgotten language of the clouds with a whirring, clicking translator. Together, they embark on a perilous journey towards the last functioning Astral Observatory, a relic from a bygone era. Their pursuit of truth ignites a firestorm of conflict. Zealous Sky Cultists, who venerate the brass satellites as divine, brand them heretics. Map-thieves, hungry for the Almanac's secrets, stalk their every move. And lurking in the shadows, the enigmatic Order of the Veil guards a truth more dangerous than any fabrication. As Adric and Penra delve deeper, they uncover whispers of the Sky-Engine, a colossal subterranean machine capable of manipulating the atmosphere. Their search takes them through ozone-choked tunnels and forgotten cities carved into the earth, where they enlist the help of Brandy Martin, a skeptical engineer whose pragmatism is challenged by their extraordinary discoveries. The closer they get to the Sky-Engine, the more perilous their journey becomes. They uncover a centuries-old conflict between the Order of the Veil and the forgotten Luminaries, the architects of the artificial sky. And a shocking revelation about Penra's heritage forces her to confront her family’s legacy and choose between preserving the illusion and unveiling a potentially devastating truth. Can they decipher the Almanac's cryptic messages, locate the Sky-Engine, and navigate the treacherous political landscape before the Sky Cultists, manipulated by the Order of the Veil, unleash a divine apocalypse? In a world where the sky itself is a lie, the fight for truth could shatter everything.
