The silence that followed Shi's words was more profound than the roar of the river. It was a silence that had weight, that pressed in on my eardrums and made the air feel thick and unbreathable. The blue-white light of the stone in Shi's hand seemed to suck the color from the world, leaving everything in shades of grey and black.
"What is it?" I finally managed to choke out, my voice a raw, scraped thing.
Shi didn't look at me. His four eyes were fixed on the stone, his expression a mask of grim concentration. "Not an 'it'," he said slowly, turning the stone over in his palm. "A 'they'. I felt a network. A consciousness that spans miles. Like a spider's web, and we just stepped into the center."
He stood up, his movements fluid and deliberate, the exhaustion from his wound seemingly forgotten. He tucked the stone into a leather pouch on his belt and pulled the drawstring tight. "We need to move. Now. The cave is a death trap."
