The lift hissed and lurched into motion, groaning like some ancient beast as it descended into the unknown. The cracked glass of its control panel flickered, casting fractured reflections across the walls. Vesper stood tall despite the tightness of her corset and the bruises forming along her arms. The scavenger stood beside her, arms crossed,…

Lightning split the sky, illuminating the jagged skyline of London 2177 in a ghostly glow. Towers of steel and brass loomed in the haze, their neon veins pulsing like the arteries of a restless beast. The air smelled of rain and burning circuits, a fusion of old-world grime and futuristic decay. Dame Vesper Fograven stood…

Holmes was dead. Perhaps. The thought wound through the cold London night like the city’s ever-present fog, thick, unrelenting, impossible to grasp. It curled over the Thames, swallowing the city in its ghostly embrace. London breathed, unaware. The world moved on, heedless of the moment about to unfold beneath its gaslit haze. A shadow stood…