[Cass]
The mountain was quieter now, but quiet in Rootwater never meant peace. It meant breath held between heartbeats. Cass sat at the edge of the Spore Ward chamber, watching its faint light climb the walls like slow water. The glow no longer flared; it pulsed steady, each rhythm softer than the last. The tremors had stopped. The air smelled of metal and wet dust.
Karrek was the first to move after the sealing. He limped to the forge and began reforging what had survived - the Eelbone blades, the broken tools, the fragments of chain that still sang when struck. He said nothing. None of them did. The mountain had spoken, and words felt small beside it.
Rilka worked beside the Ward, chalking new lines over the cracked wall. Her drawings weren't maps anymore. They were memory. Faces. Names. The first generation of the buried. Cass caught her eyes once and saw something that scared him more than grief. Hope. Hope that the mountain could remember them forever.
Eshna approached from the tunnel, arms full of fungus blooms. "Surface air's thinner," she said. "Something's shifting up top."
Cass rose slowly. His body was still raw from the resonance backlash. Every movement sent pain through his chest where the Heart had burned its mark. "If it's thinning, then maybe some tunnels opened."
"Or collapsed," Eshna said.
He looked at the Ward again. "Either way, we'll need new ways to breathe."
He walked the upper corridors that day, past melted glass veins and stone carved smooth by heat. Each corridor hummed faintly, like a memory half erased. Sometimes he thought he heard voices under the hum - a child's laugh, a wordless song, a whisper saying his name.
At the farthest tunnel he found water trickling through a crack, clear and cold. He cupped it in his hands. It tasted of ash.
The mountain slept, but it dreamed through every drop.
He whispered to the stone, "If you're still alive, then so are we."
[System]
Environmental Stability: 64%
Population: 172 (Active)
Rootwater Bastion
Status: Contained
Resources: Low Tier (Sustainment viable 30 days)
New Task Generated – Rebuild Core Infrastructure
[Cass]
He gathered the council that evening. Karrek, Eshna, Rilka, and the elder whose beard was now streaked with silver spores. They sat on overturned barrels in the forge hall, the last place wide enough for them all.
"We can't wait for the surface to find us," Cass said. "If they think we're dead, good. We build here."
Karrek grunted. "We build with what? The forges are cracked."
"Then start with bricks," Cass said. "The eelbone holds heat. Melt it down, mix with spore ash. It'll harden."
Eshna frowned. "And food? The fields are gone."
"Then we farm the fungus chambers," Cass said. "The mountain grows what it eats. We just have to teach it our hunger."
The elder tapped his staff once. "And when it wakes again?"
Cass met his gaze. "Then we'll be ready."
Silence followed. Rilka's chalk scraped softly as she drew another circle on the table. "If we rebuild," she said, "we should call it something else. Rootwater died."
Cass considered. "Then we call it Bastion. Because that's what we'll be when the next wave comes."
Karrek nodded once. "Bastion it is."
[System]
Settlement Renamed: Propervy Bastion
Civic Alignment: Isolationist Neutral
Unique Trait Unlocked – Resonant Core (Dormant)
[Rilka]
Weeks passed in rhythms of work and pulse. The Bastion grew like coral. New tunnels carved, fungus gardens planted, forge smoke mixing with the shimmer of spores. Every few nights, the mountain hummed softly - as if counting them.
Rilka drew again, but not graves. She drew plans: bridges, ventilation shafts, an archive hall. Cass gave her an entire cavern for it. "If we forget how we built it," he said, "then it'll die twice."
Sometimes she caught him staring at the Ward, hand over his ribs, eyes unfocused. She knew he still felt the resonance there. The bond hadn't faded. She didn't tell him she heard it too, faint like breath behind stone.
[System]
New Substructure Completed: Hall of Records
Construction Progress: 12%
[Cass]
Two months after the sealing, the first miners reached the lower fissures. The air down there was wrong - too sweet, almost alive. Cass joined them with a lantern.
They found veins of a new mineral, slick and pulsing faintly green. The miners called it "echo ore."
Karrek tested it in the forge and laughed for the first time since the collapse. "It sings when struck," he said. "Not ringing - singing."
Cass listened. The tone was the same frequency as the Ward.
He ordered every sample stored near the Hall. They would study it later. For now, it was proof that the mountain still bled energy.
[Rilka]
One evening she woke to distant vibrations. Not tremors - rhythms.
She ran to the main hall, chalk still in her hand. Cass was already there, standing under the Ward's glow. The pulse had changed pitch.
"It's learning from us," she whispered.
Cass shook his head. "No. It's answering."
The hum deepened. For a moment, every lantern flickered in unison. Then the sound rolled away, downwards, like a tide retreating into dark.
Cass turned toward the depth shafts. "Something below heard us."
[System]
Signal Detected – Unknown Origin (Depth: -9)
Transmission Type: Resonant Pulse
Status: Investigate (Optional)
[Eshna]
They argued for hours.
Karrek wanted to seal the lower shafts. "We just buried a god," he said. "Why dig it up again?"
Cass answered, "Because if it calls and we ignore it, it'll climb on its own."
Rilka drew circles on the floor. "The Ward's stable now," she said. "If something answers, maybe it's kin."
Eshna said nothing. She looked at the people around her - the tired, scarred, hopeful faces and knew they would follow Cass into fire again.
Finally she said, "Then take torches, not prayers."
[Cass]
They prepared for descent.
He chose five: Rilka for mapping, Karrek for the forge tools, Eshna for medicine, two miners for endurance. The rest were told to hold the Bastion and keep the Ward alive.
Before leaving, Cass placed his palm against the Ward. Its glow warmed his skin. "If the mountain dreams again," he whispered, "keep it gentle."
The Ward pulsed once. He felt it answer - not in sound, but in rhythm under his ribs.
[System]
New Quest Unlocked – Descent Protocol
Objective: Investigate Resonant Pulse Source (Depth -9)
Risk Level: Severe
Reward: Unknown
[Cass]
They began the descent through the forgotten shafts, following the faint glow of Rilka's chalk marks. The air grew colder, then warmer again, then wet. Fungal vines hung from the ceilings, some whispering when brushed.
Hours later, the tunnels opened into a vast hollow. The floor shimmered like black glass. In the center pulsed a faint green light.
Rilka knelt and drew her hand across the surface. "Not water," she murmured. "Not stone either."
Cass crouched beside her. The hum vibrated through his bones. "It's a vein."
He pressed the tip of his spear to it. The light rippled outward in perfect circles, and something far below answered with a heartbeat.
He smiled faintly. "Echoes through stone," he said. "Let's see who's listening."
[System]
Quest Updated – Resonant Signal Confirmed
Sub-Objective: Identify Origin Entity
Progress: 12%
The pulse deepened, a whisper rising with it.
Cass heard words only he could understand.
Welcome back, child of Propervy.
He tightened his grip on the spear. "Then let's talk."