Curiosity was supposed to be a sin in the Undercity.
At least, that's what the Overseers preached — that wonder leads to ruin, and ruin leads to the dark.
But Luke had never been good at staying obedient.
The night after finding the hidden shaft, he couldn't sleep. The air in their quarters felt heavier than usual, the hum of the pipes above too loud to ignore. Elias snored lightly in the cot beside him, face half-buried under a torn blanket.
Luke stared at the ceiling until he couldn't anymore. Then he nudged Elias.
"Hey."
Elias grunted. "If this isn't about food, I'm not interested."
Luke smirked. "It's not food. It's better."
A single eye cracked open. "You're kidding. You actually want to go back there?"
Luke shrugged. "You saw it too. The light, the air—there's something up there."
Elias rolled over, groaning. "You know, most sane people see a sealed passage and think let's tell the Overseer."
"Right," Luke said, standing and pulling on his jacket. "Good thing we're not sane."
Elias stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "You're going to get us both killed."
"Maybe," Luke said with a grin. "But at least we'll die doing something interesting."
---
They slipped out past curfew, their boots barely whispering over the metal grates. The Undercity was asleep — lights dimmed to a faint amber glow, air thick with steam and silence. Patrol drones floated in lazy circuits, their sensors scanning for movement.
Elias tossed a pebble across the tunnel to distract one; Luke dragged him into an alcove just as a searchlight swept past.
"See?" Luke whispered. "You're getting good at this."
"I'm getting stupid," Elias hissed back. "There's a difference."
They reached the barricade in Section Five and pried open the loose panel they'd sealed earlier. The cold air washed over them again — sharp and clean, enough to make them both pause.
Elias whispered, "Still think this is a maintenance shaft?"
"No," Luke said quietly. "This was built before the Nova's pipes ever reached down here."
The tunnel greeted them like before — narrow, winding, impossibly still. The further they climbed, the less the hum of the Undercity followed. Only their footsteps echoed now.
They passed carvings on the wall this time — faint, eroded symbols neither could read. A crest half-buried in the dust caught Luke's attention: a sun split in two.
"Elias," he said softly, brushing at the stone. "Look."
Elias leaned in. "Never seen that before."
"Maybe it's from the old world," Luke murmured.
"The one no one talks about?"
"The one we're not supposed to believe existed."
---
The passage opened suddenly into a wider chamber — small, circular, lined with collapsed machinery and broken scaffolds. Old banners hung in tatters, their emblems unrecognizable.
But the real sight was what lay beyond the far wall: a narrow slit of an opening, cracked just enough for light to bleed through.
Luke pressed against it, peering out. His breath caught.
The Mid City stretched below them — distant, gleaming, alive.
Bridges arched between towers, shimmering with real light. Gardens floated beneath glass domes, and trains of white steel crossed the veins of the city.
He could see people — actual citizens walking freely, not hunched miners bound by shifts.
Elias stood beside him, eyes wide. "It's real."
"Yeah." Luke's voice trembled. "It's real."
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The silence was too full — of awe, of disbelief, of something dangerously close to hope.
Elias finally chuckled under his breath. "So what now? You gonna climb up there and ask for a job?"
Luke grinned faintly. "Not yet. I just wanted to see it."
Elias shook his head, smiling despite himself. "You're crazy."
"Maybe."
Then, suddenly — clang!
A section of broken scaffold gave way under Luke's boot. The noise echoed down the tunnel like a gunshot.
"Luke!" Elias hissed. "You trying to bring the Overseers here?"
Luke froze, heart hammering. He listened. No alarms. No drones. Just the faint whisper of wind from the Mid City above.
They both exhaled, then burst into quiet laughter.
"Still alive," Elias said.
"Barely," Luke replied.
Before they turned to leave, Luke looked up one last time at the slice of light above them. It wasn't sunlight — the Nova's brilliance was artificial, cold, controlled — but it was different enough to make his chest ache.
"Someday," he said quietly.
Elias looked at him. "Someday what?"
Luke smiled. "I'll touch it. Whatever's up there."
Elias shook his head. "Then I guess I'll be right behind you — making sure you don't fall off."