Hands. Hundreds of decaying, fire-slicked hands were dragging me into the abyss. My screams were muffled, my limbs weighed down.
"Elena. Why did you do it? Why?" their voices said in unison.
"No. No, no, no! I didn't do anything!" I tried to scream, but my jaw was fused shut.
I jolted upright from my haze. The world was pitch black. Cold, heavy sweat poured down my temples. I was soaked and disoriented.
"Not this again," I hissed into the dark.
I pulled on my cloak and headed directly to the upper city—Zenon. I snuck out through the under-alleys. They were dark, choked with dust and a suffocating, stale stench, as if no one had passed through them in years. The torches barely clung to life, even after I tried to relight them, their flames weak and trembling. The air was damp and heavy, pressing against my lungs with every breath. I walked for what felt like forever—
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
The watch in my pocket kept counting, but I refused to take it out. I had always felt like it was stealing something from me.
Keeping to the shadows, I moved until I reached the midpoint between the lower and upper levels. It took me a long time to get there, weaving through narrow passages and broken paths before finally finding a way out.
I lifted my head slightly and looked around.
This place was full of motion. Everyone was wearing strange costumes, colorful masks, and dancing.
Oh! I forgot. The winter solstice.
A carnival was being held. Everyone was dancing, drinking, and laughing. The world was filled with what I craved most. Colors—everything was bright and vivid.
Two men were performing. They were dressed in strange attire, with masks concealing their features. One had dark blond hair; the other had hair as black as ink. They were complete opposites in every way. The blond wore a red and black outfit, open at the chest, while the other was draped in white and blue that covered his entire frame. Yet it didn't take a genius to guess the impressive physique hidden beneath.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at the two men swinging on very thin slings—
The ropes creaked above them, stretched between crooked iron poles.
Lanterns of colored glass hung low across the square, their light flickering in unnatural hues—violet, sickly green, deep crimson. The flames inside them twisted as if alive, bending toward the performers whenever they swung too close.
Music pulsed through the air, and everyone began to move with it.
The city itself seemed alive. Steam-powered carriages drifted above the streets, gliding along invisible tracks, their engines hissing softly. Towering buildings rose on every side, painted in silver and gold, their polished surfaces reflecting the shifting carnival lights. Brass pipes ran along the walls like veins, releasing bursts of steam that vanished into the cold night air. Massive clockwork mechanisms turned endlessly in the open—gears grinding, pistons pumping, iron hearts beating beneath the skin of the city. Even the street lamps ticked faintly.
My eyes followed a bumptious-looking woman in black attire, and when she turned into an empty alley, that was when I made my move.
I knocked her unconscious and borrowed her clothes. Frankly, black is not my favorite color, but it calls to me every time.
I put on the mask and started heading toward the main square.
The city breathed in a low, amber hum. The air hung heavy with happiness and laughter. Great striped tents rose around me, their peaks sharp and lustrous. Each was stitched with veins of flickering gold filament that cast long, dancing shadows across the cobblestones.
People moved in a slow, rhythmic tide between the carousels and the curio shops, their voices swallowed by the distant, discordant music of a steam calliope.
In the distance, past the haze of the fairgrounds, the jagged spires of the old city loomed. The cathedral-palace was a jagged silhouette, its windows glowing with a fierce, forbidden light, reminding me of the doom we were facing.
However, there was no plague affecting the upper city. Everyone seemed happy and satisfied with life. I didn't get it. How had nobody doubted a thing?
The more I thought about it, the less it made sense at all.
The two men leapt from the dizzying heights of the slings they had been performing on. Both twisted through the air in precise, fluid motions, their bodies cutting clean arcs through the air.
They landed effortlessly on the platform at the center of the square. The crowd erupted, stunned, then broke into loud applause.
"Now," the black-haired man called out, his voice deep and commanding, spreading his arms wide as he stood with one leg crossed over the other. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the grand show" he said dramatically.
And everyone was frozen, silent, waiting.
And then — the air around us stilled— and something shifted.