China’s Atlantis; the Lion City. Image courtesy of http://www.lovethesepics.com

Written by Lilith

Off the north eastern shores of the great continent of Silvera hides a marvel of engineering, a secret wonder which most only dream of seeing, and many believe to be nothing more than a myth. Contained within one huge air bubble at the bottom of the sea is a city, and that city is named Koku for the four brothers who built it. It is well maintained; fresh air runs through pipes that lead to the surface, and there are many ways to travel between the city and the world outside, though few choose to leave the security of their secret world. And the city itself is not just a marvel, but also a beauty. Tall, twisting towers reach up to the very peak of the bubble, and the glass of a thousand windows winks in the half-light; the only light that the bottom of the sea can get. Here, it is always dusk.

How did such a city come to be, I hear you ask? As I mentioned, the city itself was founded and built by four brothers, but it wasn’t the Koku family who created the bubble under the sea. The bubble was there long before them, and perhaps even before the Silvera continent sustained any life at all. This place was created by a God, one who needed no light, nor oxygen, but chose to create this place as a haven, a place to get away from her brothers and meditate quietly. She sprung up plant life on the ocean floor, and sat with her chin in her hands and watched it grow, breathing life into the weaker ones and letting the stronger ones spread out from the bubble and take over the sea. Then she tired of her little hiding place, and burst out of it, flying into the sky on a turret of water that collapsed as soon as she forgot about it. But she left the bubble where it was. She liked it that way.

None of the scholars of Koku know the true story of how their city was able to be in such a strange location, but they do know that it is magical. Wherever Gods go, they leave traces of it behind them, and there are parts of Earth where magic is a constant flow, leaking out of the centre of the planet where two Gods are trapped, if the stories are true. Scholars know this, the ones in Koku being no exception, and so they thought their city would stay magical forever. They reinforced the buildings with charms rather than bricks, and likewise the pipes that pumped oxygen into their city. That was, of course, their one mistake.

And so it is that one night on Koku, the magic will run out. The plants the Stranger breathed into life will die under the citizens’ feet, but they will pay no notice, because all around them, their city will be falling down. And when the sun rises above the ocean, the city in dusk will be broken, but when the sun reaches its peak, the bubble will forget its purpose, and collapse into a thousand other bubbles that float to the surface.

But until then, the city under the sea will stand tall. A hidden wonder. A gem on the ocean floor. The Stranger’s own masterpiece.