34/100 — DAILY WRITING CHALLENGE ‘25

Atheya Lür, Pt.VII

by Gustave Deresse

On this 60th night, all awoke another time, pulled to gaze out their windows uniformly overlooking the town square, and with a strange chant on their lips — “athe-ya lür-a theya lür, athe-ya lür-a theya lür— ” when a brilliant flash of lightning reached across the starless sky and STRUCK the incompleted pyramid — still now merely a base — and to the sound of raucous thunder, a moment in darkness later, it ignited in a burst of incandescent white and blue flames, illuminating — through no readily feasible explanation — solely the structure housing the box, obscuring the surrounding vicinity in a depth never consciously before experienced by the residents who were now entranced on what they knew to be the sound of the box opening.