Ashspire

Every hundred years, the city of Ashspire must die to be reborn. For a century, the jagged spires and soot-stained streets of Ashspire have stood as a monument to human ambition. But the clock has run out. The Great Burn is coming—a literal alchemical inferno designed to consume the rot of the old world and forge a new city of shimmering glass and obsidian from the ashes. Elara, a librarian clinging to the forbidden records of a dying era, and Kael, a master mechanic who understands the city's failing heartbeat, are among the few who flee into the subterranean deep. As the world above melts into a liquid graveyard, they must protect the only thing the fire cannot refine: the truth of their history. But when they emerge into the silent, crystalline skeleton of the new Ashspire, they discover that the city's rebirth comes with a terrifying price. The glass is beautiful, but it is hungry. To survive, Elara and Kael must find a way to plant the seeds of the past into a future that was designed to forget them. Blending cinematic fantasy with high-concept steampunk, Ashspire is a haunting exploration of memory, sacrifice, and the resilience of the human spirit. Approximate Length: 11,700 words (Novelette)