Location:Seven Peaks — Southern Agricultural Corridors, Luminous Haven
Date/Time:TC1853.12.22 — Dawn to Evening
The wheat was golden.
Not the dull yellow of grain that had spent months pulling nutrients from tired soil, reaching maturity through the long patience of seasons. This was gold that shimmered — stalks heavy with kernels that caught the dawn light and threw it back, as if the plants themselves were lit from within. Five weeks ago, Tomas Wei had pressed seeds into freshly cleared earth during the most frantic planting operation of his life, working eighteen-hour days to get three corridors seeded before a deadline he hadn't been told the reason for.
Now he stood at the edge of Corridor One and couldn't breathe.
