The Flue Choker

Mateiro Alavez is a soot-blinded chimney sweep navigating the claustrophobic, wrought-iron flues of Cadernera—a sprawling industrial metropolis trapped under a massive artificial smog canopy. Armed with hand-pumped brine-canisters and extreme agility, Mateiro fights to protect his young apprentice from Ash-Weavers, chitinous fire-feeding arachnids infesting the coal-gas pipelines. But when he discovers a monstrous nest inside a boardinghouse, he realizes the arachnid plague is no natural disaster. The city's oligarchs are actively chaining open the gas valves and seeding the monsters to incinerate the slum wards. Outmatched and suffocating in the dark, Mateiro must weaponize his brutal profession to tear down an empire of iron and gas, turning the masters' deadly exhaust network against them.