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† THE GLASS FACTORY. †
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#@#£††~^.. SEVERAL CENTURIES AFTER IT HAD LAST ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. BELONGED TO US, WE WENT ON AN OUTING TO .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THE GLASS FACTORY THAT BORE OUR FAMILY ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... NAME. IT HAD CHANGED OWNERS MANY TIMES ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. SINCE OUR ANCESTORS DEATH, AND THEN ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. STOOD ABANDONED FOR A LONG WHILE. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. FINALLY, THE NATURAL END STATION FOR ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... THE BUILDINGS THAT SURVIVE: A MUSEUM, ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. AND A GIFT SHOP. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THERE'S A LONG TIME SINCE MY FAMILY ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... MADE ANYTHING. BY MANY, WE WOULD BE ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. CONSIDERED POOR. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THERE ARE TWO MAIN FACTORY BUILDINGS, ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... DOMED THINGS OF SEVERAL FLOORS, MADE IN ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. YELLOW BRICK. LARGE BUT NARROW WINDOWS, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. REMINESCENT OF SOME CATHEDRAL. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. CUSTOM-MADE GLASS, OF COURSE, LARGE AND ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... LEADED, AND ASHEN. A BIT TOO DARK TO BE ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. PRACTICAL. ON THE EASTERN BUILDING, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. SOME ARE SHATTERED. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... THE OTHER ONE IS PUBLICLY OPEN. THERE'S ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. A MUSEUM, WITH WAX FIGURES OF MY GREAT ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER, OR SOMETHING. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. VARIOUS TOOLS (OR REPLICAS) LAID OUT ON ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... TABLES, WITH EXPLAINING TEXTS. A LOT OF ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. GLASS OF VARYING THICKNESS. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. †† ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... †† †† ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. ~~~~~~~ † † ~~~~~~~ ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. †† †† .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. †† ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. I QUICKLY SNEAK OUT, AND CLIMB INTO THE ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. OTHER BUILDING. THE CONTRAST IS .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. OVERWHELMING. IT MUST HAVE STOOD ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... DERELICT FOR A LONG TIME, WINDOWS ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. BROKEN, METALLIC TRASH AND POOLS OF ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. DARK GLASS ALL OVER THE FLOOR. NO .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ELECTRIC LIGHTS, BUT I CAN SEE BY THE ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... LIGHT THAT SHINES IN WHEREVER THE DARK ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. WINDOWS ARE MISSING A PANE. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. HOWEVER, THE GREATEST DIFFERENCE IS THE ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... HIGHER FLOORS: THIS BUILDING HAS NONE. ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. IT IS ONE MASSIVE HALL, STRETCHING AWAY ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. INFINITELY ABOVE ME. SOMEWHERE UP THERE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. IS SOME GREAT IRON LATTICEWORK, FROM ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... WHERE CHAINS ARE SUSPENDED, AND PARTS ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. OF MACHINERY HAS BEEN FALLING DOWN. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THERE IS, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREAT ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... HALL, A THIN SPIRAL STAIRCASE THAT ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. LEADS UP THERE. I SNEAK OVER THERE, AND ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. TAKE A FEW RELUCTANT STEPS. AFTER JUST .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. A REVOLUTION, I NOTICE THAT FOR EACH ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... STEP THE BUILDING STARTS TO GLOW, THE ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. BRICKS TURNING A DARK RED, AND THEN ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. ORANGE, ALL THE PILED UP DEBREE BEING .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. LIT FROM BEHIND. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. I STOP READY TO RUN DOWN AND OUT, BUT ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE ON THE STAIRCASE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. WITH ME NOW, PRESSED CLOSE. HE'S ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... LOOKING LIKE ME, SHORT HAIR AND THIN ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. ARMS, BUT WITH EARS FROM SOME ANIMAL, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. AND MORE DISTURBINGLY, COMPLETELY MADE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. OF DARK LIQUID GLASS. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. †† ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. †† †† .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ~~~~~~~ † † ~~~~~~~ ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... †† †† ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. †† ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. MY FEAR HOLDS ME IN PLACE WHILE HE ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... STARTS OPERATING LEVERS AND DIALS SET ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. IN THE CENTER OF THE STAIRCASE. SLOWLY, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. IT STARTS SPINNING, CIRCLING UPWARDS. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. IT'S AN ELEVATOR! I START TO RUN ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... DOWNWARDS, BUT NOW THE LIQUID BOY ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. CREATURE GRABS HOLD OF ME. I TRY TO ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. SHAKE HIM OFF, BUT HE'S TOO STRONG, AND .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. PULLS ME BACK UP BESIDE HIM. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. THIS TIME, I TURN ANGRY INSTEAD. WHAT ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. THE HELL? WHO IS THIS GUY, ACTING LIKE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THIS? I REACH OUT MY FREE ARM AND SLAM ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... A RANDOM LEVER. SOME METAL BAR IS ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. SUDDENLY RELEASED BETWEEN US, HITTING ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. HIM ON THE ARM, FORCING MY RELEASE. I .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. SHOVE HIM OFF OF ME, AND HE FALLS INTO ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... THE LEVERS, MESSING THEM UP. ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. IMMEDIATELY, A THIN RUSTY CHAINMAIL ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. CURTAIN IS DROPPED AROUND ME. BUT THE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ELEVATOR ALSO SPEEDS UP SIGNIFICANTLY. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. THE WALLS ARE FLARING NOW, YELLOW, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. WHITE, ALMOST BLUE. I CLOSE MY EYES AND .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. CURL INTO A BALL. BUT THEN, THE GLASS ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... BOY SCREAMS, A PIERCING SOUND THAT ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. FORCES MY EYES BACK OPEN. I WATCH AS HE ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. BECOMES TOO LIQUID, HIS BODY POOLING .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. DOWN IN HIS NOW MASSIVE TAIL, AND THE ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... TIP OF IT SUDDENLY BREAKS OF IN A GLASS ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. DROP THAT FALLS TOWARD THE FACTORY ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. FLOOR. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... HE'S CRAWLING ON THE STAIRS, UNABLE TO ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. KEEP HIS BODY UPRIGHT. CAN'T REACH THE ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. LEVERS, CLAWS AT MY CHAINMAIL CAGE, .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. WHILE HIS BODY IS TURNING INTO DARK ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... PEARLS. FINALLY, HE'S LOST TOO MUCH OF ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. HIMSELF AND THE SCREAM IS CUT SHORT. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. THE LAST OF HIM RAINS DOWN. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... I STILL CAN'T REACH THE LEVERS FROM ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. WITHIN MY CAGE. LOOKING UP, I TRY TO ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. MAKE OUT THE CEILING, BUT IT'S ALL A .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. WHIRLING SEA OF COLOURS. BELOW ME GLOWS ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... THE HELLFIRE OF THE FACTORY WALLS, BUT ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. VERY FAINT. I SIT DOWN, CURL BACK UP, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. BECOME STILL. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... †† ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. †† †† ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. ~~~~~~~ † † ~~~~~~~ .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. †† †† ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... †† ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. A LARGE CLUNK SHAKES MY ENTIRE BODY, .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. AND SNAPS ME BACK INTO REALITY. I'M ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... BACK AT THE FACTORY FLOOR, BUT THE ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. STAIRS ARE STILL MOVING SLIGHTLY, ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. CLICKING IN PLACE, CARRYING ME THE LAST .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. FEW CENTIMETERS. I CAME FROM BELOW, ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... SOMEHOW. THE CHAINMAIL IS RETRACTED, ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. AND I SLOWLY DISMOUNT THE STAIRS. ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. SHAKING AND CRYING, I MAKE MY WAY OVER ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... THE FACTORY FLOOR, WADING THROUGH DARK ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. GLASS MARBLES. A QUICK GLANCE DOWN, AND ..^~††£#@#
##@#£††~^. I SEE THERE'S SOMETHING FAINT INSIDE .^~††£#@##
#@#£††~^.. THEM. EMBRYOS? ARE THESE EGGS? ..^~††£#@#
@#£††~^... ...^~††£#@
#@#£††~^.. I SHUDDER, AND CLIMB BACK OUT. ..^~††£#@#
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