Chapter 1: The City of Hanging Gears
The city of Aethelgard did not sit on the ground; it floated amidst the clouds, held aloft by massive brass turbines and ancient magic. In the lower districts, where the oil mist was thickest, lived Elias. He was a "mender," a man who could fix anything from a broken pocket watch to a failing life-support lung.
Elias was a man of few words, but his hands spoke a language of precision. One rainy evening, a woman wrapped in a silver cloak entered his shop. She didn't carry a clock. She carried a mechanical heart, pulsing with a rhythmic, violet light that shouldn't have existed.
"It stopped," she whispered, her eyes mirroring the violet glow. "And if it doesn't start by the Lunar Eclipse, Aethelgard will fall."