The Clockwork Cradle

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In an age when natural birth has been erased from the human condition, life itself has become the rarest commodity. Children are privileges reserved for nobles whose bloodlines are engineered to endure, while the rest of society is left barren by design. In the alleys and parlors of a rigid empire, whispers spread of illicit chambers where forbidden life can be coaxed into being. An enterprise as perilous as it is profitable.

In the city of Ath, Dr. Felix Ashcombe, a disgraced physician with a genius for invention, has perfected the unthinkable: birthing chambers that can grow life in secret. His trade is dangerous, illegal, and highly profitable. But when he crosses paths with Theodus Montgommery III, Esquire, a flamboyant aristocrat with too much money and too little sense, the doctor finds himself drawn into a scheme far larger than he imagined. Theodus sees not scandal, but opportunity: an empire of children-for-sale, a market hungrier than any opium den.

Alongside them is Klaus Von Runstadt, Felix’s ambitious apprentice, who dreams of building his own cryochambers and seizing a piece of the forbidden trade. Together, the four of them forge a pact of greed, desperation, and invention. One that could topple the rigid order of their society or doom them all to the gallows.

In a world where life itself is contraband, the question is not whether they can succeed, but how long they can survive the cost of playing god.