The shelters rose in quiet rhythm.
Cael watched from a raised scaffold as Grid Alpha came to life—eight hexagonal pods linked by vent stacks and water lines. Each one self-heated, semi-ventilated, and lightly reinforced. Simple. Efficient. Durable.
He wasn't just building for the people now.
He was building around them.
[SHELTER GRID: ALPHA]Blueprint Class: Modular Civic (Tier I)Occupancy: 4 per podStatus: Complete
Trait Bonus: Collective Rest Efficiency +11%Community Morale: +3%
Children peeked inside. Adults ran their fingers across smooth alloy. Myla was helping Arna wire a light crystal near the central hub. Even Rend, grumpy as ever, looked a little proud.
Cael let himself breathe.
"We're getting ahead," he muttered.
The system chimed softly.
[STABILITY THRESHOLD PASSED]Population: 16Active Infrastructure: 12
Result: Power Demand Reached Expansion TriggerAuto-activating Geothermal Node: DEEP LINE 1-A
Warning: Signal Echo will propagate across 7 zones.
His smile faded.
"Wait—don't activate that."
Too late.
The ground beneath Hearthcore vibrated—subtly, like a heartbeat returning after cardiac arrest. A long-forgotten geothermal node, buried deeper than Cael's system had previously mapped, surged to life.
The lights in the camp flickered once. Stabilized.
Then something else flickered, too.
Far outside the wall.
His scanner pinged.
[ECHO PULSE DETECTED]Range: 13 kilometersSignal Response: Yes
Origin: Unmapped Zone – Sector Theta-BlackClassification: Architect-Class Ping (Dormant System – Reawakening)
Time to Arrival: Unknown
He froze.
He hadn't sent a message.
But something had heard one anyway.
He tapped into the relay feed. The signal pattern was complex—layered, recursive. Not a distress call. Not hostile.
But curious.
"Who's out there?" he whispered.
Myla stepped beside him. "What is it?"
Cael didn't look at her. He just stared at the signal log.
"Someone just knocked back."
Night in the Deep wasn't real, but they called it that anyway—when power was rationed, lights dimmed, movement stilled. A ritual more than a reality.
That night, Cael didn't sleep.
He stood outside the shelter hub, watching the tunnel mouth beyond the wall.
Nothing moved.
But deep in his system logs, the signal still pulsed—like sonar from a thing that had forgotten its shape, only now remembering it.
[UNKNOWN SYSTEM LOG – ATTACHED]Fragment Signature: ALTHISCore Status: DORMANT-SLAVED
Note: "Pattern fragment identified. Reconstructive agent located. Observe."
The message hadn't been sent to him.
It had been sent about him.
His hands curled into fists.
Foundation remained silent.
Edena offered no whisper.
For the first time since his awakening, he felt truly watched—and not by ghosts, but by something with intent.
Something that once built cities.
And burned them.