Tag Archives: Institutions

Particles of the Past — Chapter 6: The Undercity Does Not Forget

A lone silhouetted figure stands within a vast subterranean chamber of stone platforms and flowing water, illuminated by sparse overhead lights.

1950 FC (≈ 2025 CE) Liora had stayed behind. Someone had to remain visible long enough to slow the inevitable. The passage narrowed quickly. Zael ran with one hand skimming the stone wall, letting the roughness orient him in the dark. The air was colder here, heavier with moisture and old metal. Behind him, the vault door’s alarm faded into …

Particles of the Past — Chapter 5: Sediment of the Self

Black-and-white illustration of a vast, circular modern chamber with tiered balconies and a single shaft of light descending from above into an empty central space.

1950 FC (≈ 2025 CE) The oldest part of Luminara wasn’t marked by age so much as by refusal. Above, the city evolved without nostalgia — glass, bio-ceramic, light, and adaptive stone. Below, under the places tourists still photographed and scholars still invoked, the foundations remained stubbornly literal. Not relics. Not monuments. Substructure. Zael followed Dr. Liora Lytton through a narrow passage …