The Night of the Abyss

"The Night of the Abyss" is a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in Elyon, a floating city that gleams like a miracle on a black ocean — glass towers and luminous walkways above; rust, salt water, and fear in the lower levels below. Beneath its perfection hides a violent tradition: once a year, a siren sounds and all law disappears for twelve hours. The Council toasts to it upstairs ("Order needs chaos to survive"); the lower classes barricade their doors or sharpen their knives.  The novel follows two opposing lives:

Dorian Vale, the colossal city's brilliant creator — "the architect, the god of steel and glass, the person in charge." From the Central Tower he watches his masterpiece begin its annual purge, haunted by a past failure (alarms, screams, water rising too fast) and by the spectral presence of Iris Vale, who warns him: "This won't bring you peace. It never did." Lena Cross, a young woman from the lower levels whose mother was taken from her during a previous Night of the Abyss. Dorian's name is whispered like a curse in the depths — and this year, Lena refuses to hide: "Tonight I'm not going to hide."

Their paths cross when Dorian spots Lena through an advanced surveillance drone. Instead of fear, she defies the unseen watcher: "If you're going to look at me, at least have the courage to do it to my face." For the first time, the man who calculated every line of Elyon feels something "beyond his calculations." As chaos slowly seeps through the city, the narrator promises the collision of two lives, two worlds — and the price of love when everything is allowed and the abyss opens beneath their feet.