A Ballad for Winter

Mystery and sci-fi.

So... where, exactly, is the source of all calamities and anomalies?

First, there's the girl standing beneath the eaves to shelter from the rain. She's reunited with an old friend after a long separation, acting cheerful and lively on the surface, just as she always has. But inside, she's long kept a dark secret.

Or perhaps it's the young man living alone underground? He's endured more than ten years without ever seeing the sun, all for the sake of a faint, intangible hope in his heart?

And then there's the strange man sniffing around in a public restroom. Dressed in black mourning clothes, he recites incomprehensible prayers and claims that everyone will eventually make their way to this planet's capital.

It was a promise made without a second thought,

and also the ultimate deception.