Chapter 1: Cracks in the Sky
The first crack appeared at dawn.
Liora Dane pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the Dome, her breath fogging the transparent barrier that curved high above her head. To everyone else, the sky was flawless - blue, eternal, safe. But she saw it :l a thin silver fracture, hairline and delicate, running across the horizon like lightning frozen in time.
Her chest tightened. Nobody believed her when she whispered about the cracks. They said her imagination was too wild, that she should be grateful for the Dome, for the rationed food, for the air scrubbers that kept them alive. Gratitude was survival. Questions were dangerous.
A sharp clang echoed through the morning silence. Guards.
She turned quickly, her braid whipping her shoulder, and nearly collided with a soldier in black armour. His visor reflected her wide eyes before he lifted it, revealing a face far too young to be carrying a rifle.
"Step back from the barrier," he ordered, his tone clipped, though his gaze lingered on her a heartbeat too long.
Liora should have obeyed. Instead, she pointed up at the sky. "Do you see it?"
The soldier followed her finger, his jaw tightening. For a moment - just a moment - she thought she saw recognition in his storm- gray eyes, as though he did see the fracture. But he quickly masked it, dropping his visor back into place.
"There's nothing there," he said flatly. "Go home."
But his voice betrayed him.
Something sparked in the air between them, sharp and electric. Liora's heart stuttered as their eyes locked, the silence stretching. Whoever he was, he wasn't just another guard parroting orders.
She didn't know his name yet - Orion Veyra - or how closely their fates would entwine.
But the Dome was cracking, and so was the life she thought she knew.
