Salvage Class: The City Beneath the Tide

Nessa Pell loses her job for proving a condemned flood mechanism still works. By afternoon, she has discovered a stranger skill: she can borrow a broken object's purpose and make another machine perform it once. A clasp can hold a gate shut. A ratchet can keep a lift from falling. Each borrowed function costs her a hand skill she thought she would always have. Then the city puts her neighborhood up for demolition—before the flood that should have justified it. With an indebted salvage trader, a stubborn former inspector, and seven days before the auction, Nessa must repair what she can, prove who broke the rest, and learn how to grow stronger without losing everything she knows how to do. A complete 24-chapter progression fantasy by Aven Rookwell. This fiction, planning and continuity editing were produced using AI. Cover artwork was generated with AI. Aven Rookwell is a pen name. Content note: Flood peril, threatened drowning, economic displacement, intimidation and non-graphic violence. No explicit sexual content.