No Light in the Cage

Lantern City shines through a thousand endless nights, replacing fallen rivers of stars with artificial lights and covering truths from time immemorial with rigid order. For a thousand years, the history of Xilu has been locked away and all voices silenced. Thought has been stifled, and people are born into illusion and grow accustomed to the long night, believing that the stability of the present is the world's only natural state. The past has been buried beneath layer upon layer of time. Every record of the stars, ancient history, and surviving bloodlines is dismissed as a fantastical legend and sealed away forever in the shadows of the city-states. Lin Yuting, Xing Xiaotai, Ning Zhuo, and Meng Shuyao drift through this regimented city. Their temperaments and ambitions differ, but none is willing to be shackled by a fate already decided for them. Amid the silent undercurrents of the city-states, each in turn glimpses the cracks hidden beneath the order. Following faint clues, the four encounter reclusive descendants who have guarded the stars for generations. For the first time, they hear the ancient tales of the twelve natural tribes and touch upon the threads of history deliberately severed across the entire continent. At last, they realize that Lantern City's peace is an illusion built by human hands, and that the people's ignorance is the result of a thousand years of conditioning. The long night everyone takes for granted has never been the world's true face. As cracks appear in the walls of illusion, the young people trapped in their cage resolve to break free. The lights of an entire city cannot hold back the desire to seek the truth. The four agree to leave their peaceful homeland, cast off the shackles imposed on generations, and venture into the unknown depths of the mountains, determined to recover the ancient truth buried by time and denied by the world. The long night grows darker. The search for the stars begins here.