2 - Staggering Beauty

The sea was gone.

From the chasm below, a structure was rising. Not built of stone or metal, but of what looked like frozen lightning and whalebone, woven with a substance that shimmered like oil on water. It unfolded in dimensions that made his eyes water, each new level more elaborate than the last, covered in galleries of coral and gardens of crystalline flora that pulsed with a soft, inner light. staggering beauty 2

As the structure cleared the canyon rim, a sound began—a chord that was part whale song, part geometry, part the feeling of falling in love. Ezra’s lantern, a humble thing of brass and wick, flared to match it. He felt his own heartbeat slow to the rhythm of that chord. The sea was gone