Children of the Fall 1:1

“And from the chasm of her throat she uttered the
scream of our mortality, In the vastness of her wet eyes she produced a
flood…”
-        Excerpt from “Mourning Song for Gaia” by
Nascosto Nome
Chapter I
The apartment on
Amsterdam Road was a mess. Crumbling bricks and flaking mortar were all that
stood against the forces of gravity that weighed heavier and heavier on the old
building with each passing day. The rusty squeals of the old iron fire-escape
echoed through the building with every breath of the winter wind, and one could
not help but hear in the sound the aching moans of a creature long overdue for
death. It was but desperation that kept the building on life-support. None of
the tenants saw the apartment as a good thing, but they all saw it as a vital
thing. The decaying corpse of a once lavish home was all that stood between
them and the cold harshness of the outside world. Where the old bones provided
very little heat, what lay beyond offered nothing but cruelty and death. It was
barely anything, but it was all they had.
And for Thomas Fremont,
it was enough. As he hefted his tired legs up each step of the inside
stairwell, he hardly even noticed the dilapidated state of his home. As a
conscript of the city government, he was used to far worse. In his heavy boots
and thick militia jacket, even the chill of the (...)

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