Prelude #1: Before the Storm

Airships will change the world.

Zenya Congreve has always believed this, ever since she heard of the first prototype airships being constructed and tested in the city of Karancia across the sea from her home of Tantagal. They would be elegant, graceful machines floating overhead like majestic clouds, capable of taking Zenya—and the one person closest to her—off to faraways places… if she could but afford it.

Sharing a border with the aggressive Musean Empire to the south and a barren wasteland inhabited by automated killing machines to the north, airships are, perhaps, their salvation.

As Zenya returns home to the port city of Tantagal after a month away, the only thing on her mind is seeing her beloved friend Marielle. But after an unwelcome incident upon her return, she realises that maybe she should have spent a little more time considering one important fact: they weren’t the only people in the world developing airships.

The winds of change blow strong today… and there are storm clouds on the horizon.

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Prelude #2: Grimoire Girls

In the great Screnn Desert there stands an ancient tower, apparently made of a single sculpted piece of marble. No one knows exactly how the ancient Mathusean civilisation was able to build such a structure, and their advanced construction methods have since been lost to time, after the collapse of their entire Dynasty two centuries ago.

But while the knowledge of how it was built has been lost, the tower itself has been repurposed into a hub of knowledge gathered from all corners of the world of Liraleth. Here, the Library of Knowledge ensures that, even in the event of another collapse, the wisdom and history of the ages will be preserved.

It is here that young Salona Arlington, a librarian with a healthy passion for both books and reading, has just started work. But while being a librarian might well be her ultimate calling, she also has an as-yet unknown destiny to fulfil…

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Prelude #3: Spirit of Adventure

Zinac Kinich is an engineer with a difference: he takes ancient Mathusean technologies and reverses his way through their construction in order to build new and beneficial machines for his people in the jungle city of Zorantia. His latest job? To build them an airship worthy of the Goddess Leth, capable of defending their realm against the aggressive Musean Empire.

But today, Zinac is not working on his new project. Instead, Zinac is awaiting the arrival of a dignitary from the city of Herencia in the Central Reaches, Zorantia’s closest trading partner. He has no idea why he has to take time out of his busy schedule for such a thing, but he has a suspicion it is probably something to do with their new airship…

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These three short stories set the stage for the main Crystal Cove Chronicles series!