Beyond the silent Ridge

dropped like a trapdoor, revealing a second chamber, smooth-walled and cold as stone

e walls like glowing roots. They pulsed gently, in rhythm with the th

ed. "Every

standing and helping

rom my jacket. The broken com

a cave. This was built-cut by tools. Precisi

the ceiling-if you could call it that-was etched with an enormous mural: a star

from here,"

e door. Unlike the one above, this one b

an a hand along its su

oiled. "It'

hed. An

. As if it were alive, o

ned-without sound

by that same soft glow. And in t

ollo

nged with arches. At its center floated a structure unlike anything I'd ev

ght pulsed-soft, slow

ainment field," he whispered. "Whate

ght within flickered-then bri

. A low hum fil

eard, but felt-sli

rns. The ga

, gasping. "Did

ill shook t

something just scanned the

The orb now

dded in the crystal: a fragment of a journal. Its le

E.

ather had

eft someth