Keeper Of The Lost Cities Book 10 の小説・ストーリー

The mothers gathered in her room, trembling, as Elena read aloud from the first chapter: “There is no such thing as a finished city.” She read to them every night, sometimes only a page, sometimes an entire chapter if the guards were sleeping light. The text was technical, at first—schematics and protocols for self-repairing cities, polities designed to reforest ruins, the old thought experiments of a time before the freeze. But then, buried deep, there were other things: wild, fictional instructions for making your own home from garbage and frost, seeds for growing bread in airless dark, stories of children who outlived not just catastrophe, but the memory of it.

Jace whispered, his eyes wide. Before us lay a sprawling metropolis of translucent spires and floating arches. It was beautiful, but it was the beauty of a tomb. There were no lights in the windows, no smoke from chimneys. It was a city of frozen glass, preserved in a pocket of time where the wind didn't blow and the sun never set. "This is the Aethelgard," Kaelen breathed, his voice full of academic awe. "The lost capital of the First Shifters. Legend said it was swallowed by the earth during the Great Cleansing, but it wasn't swallowed. It was exiled."

Behind them, the city of Nova Luna glowed in the darkness, a beacon of defiance and hope in the center of the wasteland. The Covenant was sealed. Long live the Queen. [END OF BOOK ONE]

Frustration slowly built inside him. Then—His hand froze as he eyes caught thw sight of a symbol. A circle surrounded by thirteen crescent moons. The exact same symbol from Ashbourne Academy and the exact same symbol from his vision. Draven immediately pulled the book free and dust exploded into the air. The title was faded which most of the pages were damaged but one section remained readable. His eyes scanned rapidly, then stopped. "The Keepers." His heart skipped and slowly, he continued reading. The Keepers were not a pack, nor were they rogues.

A distant bell suddenly rang. Once. The endless pages overhead froze in midair. Then... every page turned toward the same direction. Something enormous was approaching. The ground trembled beneath Adrian's feet. Not with fear. With recognition. Far ahead... a city slowly emerged from the darkness. Its towers were built from giant books. Its bridges were woven from glowing sentences. Its rivers flowed with liquid silver ink. Above its gates, carved into black stone, were four ancient words. THE CITY OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS.

She wrote: "My loving Papa, I have safely arrived, and Rome is big and exciting! The buildings of the Roman Forum and the Imperial Palace are vast. Uncle Titus let me visit his library the first day I arrived. I was so happy to view all the great works of the Ancient Greek poets and philosophers. Of course, he has the writings of the Roman men throughout the century. The orations of Cicero, the sagas of Ovid, and so many others that I cannot remember all their names! I was given a tutor, a man, but he's not like my Jessa. Please convey how much I miss her, and I search for her litter every day! I'm not sad in Rome, Papa. I miss you and Jessa immensely, and Rome is incomplete with you both! B

Like we’ve done for years. "So what's with you and Aidan?" Jared asks between mouthfuls of chocolate mint ice cream. "What do you mean?" I reply after taking a long licked from my vanilla soft serve. "Well yesterday he came to ask me about your book. And it was weird because it was the 3rd one in the series. He didn't even know it was yours or your name. He just wanted a background check on it so I told him it was yours. He then Alpha commanded me to tell him everything about you. He said it was a clue. What's going on there?"

"Our noble King and Queens had prayed to the gods for a miracle. They will be rejoiced to learn about your divine arrival." "No, there's something you have mistaken there," I tried to explain this confused woman. "I just woke up in the pit of a pyramid last morning and found myself in this strange city. I don't know what is going on or what year it is, and on top of that, I haven't had a bath yet." Kesar blinked. "My apologies if I have upset you. Is there anything you need? It seems like you most likely prefer a cool bath to ease your troubled mind, perhaps?"

There was peace in the deep, and a stillness I hadn’t realized I’d needed. We kept going. Eventually, the seafloor changed. The terrain smoothed into wide-open sand beds, broken occasionally by crumbled stone pillars, scattered statues, and the skeletons of long-forgotten buildings, now worn by time and tide. Vines of coral and sea moss wrapped around the broken walls like gentle hands, reclaiming what once was. I slowed, pulling gently on Kairos’s hand. “What is this place?” Kairos looked at the ruins with a softness in his eyes. “This is the Lost City,” he said. “It was once the heart of our people. My great-grandfather lived here, long before the migration.”

Beside the harp stood a figure, her form fluid, constantly shifting between a young maiden, a mature woman, and an elderly sage. "I am Aeliana," she intoned, her voice an echo of ages past and futures untold. "Keeper of Time and Guardian of the Nexus. You have arrived at a pivotal moment." Eryx, stepping forward, inquired, "Pivotal for us or for the city?" Aeliana, her gaze piercing through the veils of time, replied, "Both. The Lost City exists in all moments simultaneously. By defending its heart, you've created ripples through time. Choices made here can reshape destinies."