Orin and Liora had journeyed through strange lands, but nothing compared to the forgotten city they stumbled upon. It was hidden deep in a canyon, shrouded in mist and abandoned by its people long ago. The buildings were towering structures of glass and stone, but they appeared incomplete, as if frozen in time. The city itself seemed to pulse with a faint energy, a hum that vibrated through the air, though it was clear no one had lived there for centuries.
“What is this place?” Liora whispered, her voice echoing off the empty walls.
Orin scanned the skyline. “It looks… unfinished.” The structures, though grand, had no doors, no windows—just hollow shells of what could have been. And yet, there was something familiar about it, as if the city itself had been waiting for them.
. . .
The air grew thick as they ventured deeper into the city. The hum became louder, almost like a heartbeat. And then they saw it—a glowing orb in the middle of the plaza, suspended in mid-air, radiating waves of energy.
As they approached the orb, a strange sensation washed over them. Memories, not their own, flooded their minds—images of a people who once lived there, their faces blank, their voices distant. They had been builders, constructing something grand, but before they could finish, the city had consumed them.
Orin reached out to touch the orb, but Liora grabbed his arm. “Wait. Look.” The ground around the orb was littered with fragments of what appeared to be stone, but as they looked closer, they realized it was something more—broken pieces of time. Each fragment seemed to pulse with the same energy as the orb, as if they had once been part of something much larger.
. . .
Suddenly, the orb pulsed, sending a wave of energy through the city. The ground beneath them shifted, and the buildings began to move. Walls rearranged themselves, towers rose and fell, and the entire city seemed to reconfigure itself in real-time.
“It’s alive,” Orin said, backing away from the orb. “The city is alive.”
Before they could react, the city began to collapse inward, as though it were folding itself back into the earth. The orb pulsed again, and for a brief moment, Orin and Liora saw it—the true city, a place that existed outside of time, untouched by the passage of centuries.
But as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, and they were left standing in an empty plaza, the orb now dark, the hum silenced. The city had returned to its slumber, waiting for the next visitors to awaken it.
