The Hollow had been quiet for seven days.
Not dead—never dead—but dormant, the way a molten lake simmers beneath obsidian. The fungal veins pulsed with patient light. The root networks stretched taut through the lower crust. Even the air moved with the deliberate rhythm of something listening, not acting.
So when the tremor came, it wasn't a surprise. It was a warning.
Kael stood at the lower platform, eyes narrowed toward the eastern cavern shelf. His hand rested on the hilt of his glass-spined dagger—not out of threat, but instinct. The seismic reading on the nearby pillar-pod crackled again. A deeper signature. Repeating now. And moving.
Riku arrived three minutes later, cloak flaring behind him in the torch-dim passage. He didn't ask for updates. Kael simply pointed to the map etched across a heated slate.
"It's below the sixth rib-line," Kael murmured. "Between the magma fangs and that new fault break."
Riku frowned. "That's outside our central reach."
Kael nodded once. "Exactly. It moved toward the fissure, then… circled it. Didn't dive in. Then it just stopped."
"Stopped?" Riku's voice was low, unreadable.
"Stopped. Alive. Paused. Then left. This thing drills fast—we didn't even catch it on the first vibration." He scratched the back of his neck. "I don't like it."
Neither did Riku.
They weren't alone anymore. That much had been clear for some time. The Hollow didn't exist in a vacuum—other creatures had long roots, long memories. And now, one of them had crossed into their map range… and turned back.
Which meant it didn't flee blindly.
It had recognized something.
"Three-unit recon," Riku said, turning. "Silent pattern. Fume-chalk trail for distance markings. One Draganoid, two Silent-Fangs."
Kael raised a brow. "You're not sending Sira?"
"She's aboveground, overseeing the new ashwalk nets," Riku replied. "And she deserves at least one quiet sunrise. These scouts will suffice."
Kael didn't argue. He simply tapped the haptic rod beside the slab. An obsidian chime echoed across the east chute.
Thirty-two minutes later, the recon team returned.
Their faces were grim.
The lead—Ashil, a lean Draganoid with mineral-warped irises—offered no report at first. She walked straight to the table, unrolled the cloth pouch she'd tied to her armor cord, and revealed three pale bone fragments.
No blood. No tool markings.
Just curved, ivory-like shards that looked… dried. As if they'd been exhumed from old soil.
Riku leaned over them. "Yours?"
Ashil shook her head. "No. Found halfway up a heat tunnel. Crushed like chalk. But not by us. There were tooth marks."
She hesitated.
"The drill-beast—if that's what it was—never burrowed in a straight line. Its path spiraled near the fissure. Like it was… tracing something."
"Or mapping it," Kael muttered.
Ashil nodded. "It paused above a magma vent. Held there for a long time. Didn't drink, didn't feed. Then shot west, out of our detection."
Riku folded his arms. "And the bones?"
"Too light for dragonoid, too old for Hollowkin. Some sort of surface thing. But it was brought down. Carried, maybe."
She stepped back, uncertain. "I don't think it's a wild beast, Commander. It was searching. Like it had purpose."
Riku stared at the fragments.
They bore no residue. No heat damage. But one of them… had a faint spiral burned into the center. Too even to be natural. A brand?
Kael caught his gaze. "We've seen this before."
Riku's thoughts raced. The glyphs near the fungal ossuary. The twisted symbols on the ancient drake nests. That same spiral—though always larger.
Now it was on bone.
"Take them to the relic kiln. Don't expose them to open heat."
Ashil gave a sharp nod and moved off.
Kael waited until she was gone, then muttered low: "You think it's from the first Layer?"
Riku didn't answer. But his jaw tightened.
That area had long been sealed—collapsed and left undisturbed after the early scouting loss. No fold events had occurred there since. Nothing of interest, until now.
Until something had tunneled from beneath it, looked at their world… and turned away.
"Have the watchers scrub the next three shifts. I don't want anything missed," Riku said. "And Kael—send a signal up. Quiet one. I want Sira below before dusk."
Kael paused. "You expecting it to come back?"
Riku didn't blink. "I'm expecting it was never alone."
The Hollow stirred behind them.
Somewhere in the vein-stone dark, something had learned where their light ended.
And it had walked away, knowing they'd follow.