The Shift of Freedom

A completely original short story I wrote for a competition. It was Shortlisted (top 10 out of thousands of entries)!!! So now I have decided to show it to anyone who wished to read it.
This will become part of a larger world/ book that I plan to write so please please please don't copy, claim it as your own, or use it for any other purposes (especially public) apart from reading, though I don't know why you would even want to. Also, if you want to comment (again idk why would anyone want to comment of this - can you tell this is my first published work?) please keep it positive and respectful of me (the author) and others! Feedback on whether you liked the lore/ worldbuilding is appreciated (I want to gauge how people like it yk?)
Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Have a lovely day.