The sun shone through the solar-powered glass of Skyholm's dome, casting shimmering streaks of light on the suspended floors like beehives in a giant clock that turned backwards. The city floated in the stratosphere – where humans had fled from the ocean that had swallowed the earth more than two centuries ago.

Kael stood on the metal railing of the southern observation deck, his ashen eyes following the thin plumes of smoke rising from the wind farms below the city. He was only twenty-one, a young engineer trained at the Skyholm Institute of Technology, but there was always something inside him that didn't belong here – something that stirred whenever he looked down, at what had once been the mainland.

He pulled a small object from his pocket: an old silver pendant, engraved with a type of symbol that no longer existed in any database. It was the only thing left of his mother—missing twelve years ago on an illegal archaeological expedition to the deep.

Kael had secretly scanned the pendant with a spectrometer in his lab. Inside, hidden behind the silver metal, was a fragment of a three-dimensional map—a fragment of an ancient pre-Deluge map, marking coordinates never recorded in any official mapping system.

A red dot blinked in the black water: "Geometry Zero—Genesis Point."

"Genesis Point?" Kael whispered, his eyes fixed on the dimly lit screen in his palm.

A faint sound came from behind him—a metallic creak, not in keeping with scheduled maintenance. He spun around.

A figure in a trench coat stood in the shadows, his face obscured by a reflective mask. The voice was distorted:

"You shouldn't see that map, Kael. Some truths are buried for good reason."

Kael stepped back, his palm tightening on the pendant.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The stranger produced a badge from inside his coat. A symbol: two bird wings and a red eye.

Deep Guard.