The command wasn't a voice. It was a line of code executing in a space that had no business being digital. Elara opened eyes she didn’t remember owning. Above her, a sky the color of a bruised plum hummed with the sound of a billion bees.
"System check," she whispered. Her voice sounded like grinding stones. awaken
She sat up, her joints clicking like cooling metal. Around her lay a graveyard of clockwork birds, their brass wings frozen in mid-flight. She reached out, touching the cold metal of a hawk. The command wasn't a voice
As she stood, the clockwork birds began to twitch. One by one, their sapphire eyes flickered to life. They didn't fly; they crawled, a sea of clicking brass teeth and sharp talons dragging toward her. "Run," the pulse said. Above her, a sky the color of a