VIEW ART
Rising a half-dozen miles over the evergreen valley of Esselssa, rooted deep in the waters of Oceanus by the unshakable Bone Pillars, the sky-city of Excelvior always bustles and ever glimmers with the comings and goings of its untiring children – proud denizens whose millennia-long tale of hard work, toil, and travail helped build this treasure in the clouds.
Excelvior! Light of the world, beacon of mankind!
With their rich collection of cutting-edge technology and fathomless folio of human knowledge, the children of Excelvior never pause and never sleep, always tinkering and seldom bickering, working tirelessly towards progress, never at rest, but always at ease – for they know that, as hard as they labor and as long as they breathe, mankind will always beat its limits and men’s minds always surpass their dreams.
Sempre avante! Sempre avante! As their saying goes.
Always moving! Always working! Always struggling!
Except…
In the sixth day of the week, six days in every month, the lights go out and the city quiets down to allow its citizens look up at great, black dome… and sing.
In the Hour of the Stars, the Excelvien finally see the natural sky and behold that which they, in their luminous labor and industrious haste, are always threatened to forget: the glimmer of the million stars in the endless void sea; the shiny, milky arms of the Octopus Galaxy; and the ghostly blues and cosmic purple hues of the long-erupted, forlorn nebulae.
In the quiet darkness of this pensive hour, embalmed by the harmony of Excelvior’s melody, shadowed and shouldered by the cold, tall walls of its iron-bronze labyrinth, even the most restless souls and wicked fiends can put to rest their gnarly goals and impish deeds, forget their sins and cleanse their crimes, and look ahead to brighter days, cleaner ways, and clearer skies.
* * * * *
This concept art depicts the Interlude between books 1 and 2 of the upcoming steampunk series Brasiliana. It features Monica and her “uncle” as they stand (and conspire) before the Vargas Building.
© Art by Gigi Potemkin with AI assets by Perchance and ChatGPT.