The Segment of the New Earth was shattered not by a bomb, but by a glitch in physics. The massive energy surge Xin had used to clear the gray gas had created a "Gravity Inversion" at the five-thousand-foot mark. It started as a low, crystalline hum that made the water in everyone's canteens float upward in perfect spheres. Then, the weight of the world simply vanished. For the soldiers and traders caught in the mid-canopy, "down" was no longer toward the roots.
A crate of medical supplies didn't tumble toward the city; it accelerated into the sky, whistling as it vanished into the clouds. A group of Eclipse prisoners, still tied together, found themselves drifting toward the stars, screaming as they "fell" toward the Sentinel Gate.
Xin felt the change in his gut—a sickening, light-hea
