Spark
The perpetual drizzle was a constant, a shimmering curtain that never quite parted. It wasn’t a gentle rain, either. It was an alchemical downpour, laced with the faint metallic tang of ionized aether, the city’s lifeblood. It pattered on the copper-plated rooftops of the Old Town, and pooled in the cobblestones alleys, reflecting the flickering glow of arcane lanterns like a million fractured stars. Æther City was a monument to ingenuity, a towering metropolis built on the backs of automatons and fueled by the volatile energy of arcano-tech. But beneath the gleaming veneer of progress, a deep social chasm yawned. From the safety of her house’s enclave Lady Delphine Pellus could feel the city’s stark divisions. Above, the gilded scrapers of the aristocracy, their lives powered by effortless magic and inherited wealth. Below, the sprawling warrens of the working class, their days a relentless grind of gears and incantations. Protests were growing more frequent. The workers w...