was uneven and bulging. It was located directly above Agatava Grade, and was hewn into the cliffs. It was all large caverns or huge gapes exposed to the air, or else bulbous growths of architecture protruding out like tree fungi, bridged or else connected by bus ferry pints that brought people up and down and sideways.

It had been easy to establish Quartzal. The War had aided in the destruction of more stubborn clutches of stone, and the cliffs were veined with vugs that guided further structural carving. The stone fell away in glistening fragments and made for pavement of semi-precious quartz and calcite and armordory and featherinium.

Quartzal was one of the broadest grades in Anthem Low, by virtue of its sprawling and seeping through the stone and adjacent air. In the highest portions of Quartzal, in the skitter of small and disconnected caves, passerine and reared their young in the glitter of deeper niches. Squabs spent their youth scrabbling blindly until the day their parents brought them to the planks to let the misty sunlight of Quartzal's ephemeral dawn open their eyes.

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