Machine Hearts: a Story of Mystery and Intrigue

Prologue

It was yet another gloomy night in Archspire, fog and exhaust mingling in the air with the ever-present sound of chugging machines. The moon and stars were somewhere in the sky, but hiding away, revealing nothing in the darkness below. Streetlights were faint beacons in the din, their soft glow the only light to see by as night took hold. All the townsfolk were in their homes by this hour, doors tightly closed and windows shuttered. The streets were empty, except for a few lonely and unlucky souls who had nowhere else to go. Even they, though, seemed to turn in for the night.

          It seemed that not just everyone had the good sense to head indoors before nightfall, however. Somewhere in the city, a lone pair of  heeled boots clicked against the cobblestone in time with a woman's hurried steps.

          Isabella Clark was a petite woman, with long, dark hair and eyes the same shade as the faraway evergreens of the mountains. Her friends and family would describe her as quite beautiful, and she supposedly had many suitors due to this. Well liked by the community, she was also often invited to social gatherings and events. By all accounts, she was an ideal citizen. Which is what made her disappearance all the more shocking.

           "What ever was she doing out at such an hour?" Is what people would later wonder when they read the news about her case. Perhaps she'd stayed late at the tailor's, chatting with a friend, and missed the last car at the station. Perhaps she'd gotten sucked into cleaning up after the party which had taken place that evening. Whatever the case, she likely clutched her skirts tightly as she made great haste to get home afterwards, like any sensible person would. Isabella knew the rules of the city as well as anyone, after all. She couldn't have been more than a few blocks away from home when bad fortune struck, her door only just out of sight. So, so close.

          But close was not close enough in Archspire that night, it seemed, because moments later a scream sounded through the city, and then Isabella was gone.