Lost in the Tarnished Cube — Thomas K. Carpenter

Danai broke the sky when her birds didn't return home. Crystalline shards the size of war banners fell from the grayish-black clouds that, until that point, had smelled like rain. What replaced it was the smell of a long-forgotten attic.

She huddled under the carnifex tree, rocking on her rear and sucking her thumb. After a time, she thrust her slender fingers beneath the gnarled roots that spread like tentacles from the towering tree. Grubs and worms wriggled
from the black dirt she upturned, less vigorously than they had in years past.

Finally she came to her prize...