The scraping sound eventually faded, replaced once more by the thick, cloying silence of Meridian's deep foundations. Whether it had been natural settling or something else remained unnervingly unclear. Rhys knew, despite the crushing weight of exhaustion pressing down on him, that staying put wasn't an option. Their meager water supply wouldn't last, and the unknown sound served as a grim reminder that they weren't alone down here.
Pushing himself upright felt like lifting lead weights. Boulder offered a steadying arm, his presence a silent reassurance in the face of Rhys's profound weakness. Emerging from their temporary alcove, Rhys immediately focused what little residual power he possessed into his Echo Sense, desperately scanning the environment. The world was still muffled, indistinct beyond a few yards, but the imperative was clear: find Aether. Find any source of clean, usable energy to replenish his scoured Pool and restore his senses.
The search was agonizingly slow and frustrating. He extended his perception tentatively, probing the surrounding tunnels. He detected faint energy signatures, sparks of hope that quickly fizzled into disappointment. A pocket of buzzing energy turned out to be a nest of phosphorescent cave crickets, their collective life force irritatingly chaotic. Another, stronger hum emanated from a section of collapsed machinery, but the energy felt stagnant, corrupted by centuries of decay and rust. He found traces of the Weaver ruin's unique resonance bleeding through the rock from the direction they'd come, but it was too diffuse, too distant to draw upon. His desperation grew with each dead end, the need for energy becoming a physical ache complementing the gnawing hunger in his belly. Without his Echo Sense functioning properly, they were blind, vulnerable targets.
Just as true despair began to set in, he caught it – an incredibly faint thread, almost imperceptible against the background static, but possessing a quality he recognized: stability, purity. It felt different from the raw environmental Echoes of the sewer junction, cleaner even than the fountain courtyard. It felt… refined. Following this delicate signature required intense concentration, leading them down a narrow, branching tunnel littered with fallen pipes and debris.
The source was unassuming: a large, thick conduit, similar in design to those within the Weaver ruin but clearly older, recessed into the tunnel wall. A hairline fracture marred its surface near a complex joint, and from this fracture leaked a minuscule, almost invisible stream of shimmering, faintly glowing vapor. The vapor dissipated quickly in the damp air, but the energy signature emanating from the leak was clear, stable, and surprisingly potent despite the low volume. Rhys analyzed it carefully with his slowly recovering Echo Sense. It wasn't raw Aetherium; it felt processed, structured, like the internal power circulating within the Weaver complex itself, but blessedly free of the corrupted taints he'd learned to fear. It was a lifeline.
Ignoring the filth and discomfort of the tunnel floor, Rhys immediately sat cross-legged before the fractured conduit. Boulder took up a vigilant guard position, scanning the dark tunnel entrances. Rhys drew the shard, its familiar presence helping to steady his ragged focus. He reached out with his will, gently inviting the leaking energy.
The absorption process felt noticeably different. This refined Aether flowed more easily, integrating into his depleted Pool with less resistance than the raw environmental Echoes he was used to. The shard's purifying/stabilizing effect seemed less taxed, the energy requiring less 'filtering'. It felt like drinking pure spring water after subsisting on murky pond water. However, the rate of flow was agonizingly slow. The leak was minuscule, a bare trickle compared to the fountain or the sewer junction source.Replenishing his Pool became an exercise in extreme patience.
Hours crawled by in the silent dark, marked only by the faint hiss of the escaping vapor and Boulder's steady breathing. Rhys remained locked in deep meditation, drawing in every precious mote of energy, carefully nurturing the fragile flame within him. Slowly, painstakingly, his Aether Pool began to refill. It wasn't a flood, but a gradual seeping that eventually brought him back from utter depletion to perhaps fifteen, then twenty percent capacity. It was enough. The crushing fatigue eased slightly, the world sharpened around the edges, and crucially, his Echo Sense returned to a functional, albeit still weakened, state. He could perceive the surrounding tunnels for a reasonable distance again, the suffocating blindness lifting.
With a small but stable reserve of Aether secured, Rhys turned his attention back to the Weaver datapad. He carefully unwrapped it, its cool surface strangely comforting. Holding the shard against the slate, using it as both a focus and potentially an attunement key, he channeled a thin, controlled stream of his newly acquired, refined Aether into the device.
The reaction was immediate and more pronounced than before. The intricate patterns covering the slate's surface flared with a soft, steady blue light. They didn't just glow; they shifted, reconfigured, flowing like currents of liquid light beneath his fingertips. He could perceive complex energy pathways activating within the slate, responding directly to his Aether infusion, specifically resonating with the unique signature imparted by the shard. It felt like interacting with a dormant, intricate mechanism slowly waking up. Still, no clear interface appeared, no map unfolded. It remained locked, but he felt a growing certainty that access wasn't impossible – it required the right key, the right frequency, perhaps a specific level of Aether density or even biometric input linked to his unique energy signature, now subtly altered by his experiences.
While Rhys was absorbed in his attempts, Boulder hadn't been idle. Scouting their immediate surroundings within the maintenance tunnel network, he returned with a small but vital bounty. He had found a patch of pale, fleshy fungi clinging to a damp wall – Rhys's cautious Echo scan confirmed it was non-toxic, though likely bland and chewy – and, more importantly, located a slow but steady drip of clean water collecting in a hollow beneath a cluster of stalactites. These small victories were disproportionately morale-boosting, providing the basic sustenance needed to continue.
As they consumed the meager fungi and refilled their waterskins, Rhys rested, allowing his Aether Pool to settle. He extended his recovered Echo Sense further down the tunnels, probing the path ahead. That's when he felt it again, stronger this time, coming from deeper within the network: a distinct, rhythmic energy pulse. A steady thrum… thrum… thrum… like a great, slow heart beating or a massive machine operating smoothly. It felt powerful, controlled, and utterly unlike anything else he had sensed down here.
Escape remained their primary goal. But this pulse… it was a source of significant energy. Could it be linked to an environmental control system, a ventilation shaft leading upwards, or even another exit? Or was it merely the power source for another, potentially more dangerous, section of these ancient foundations? Curiosity, the scavenger's instinct to investigate the unknown, warred with the ingrained caution that had kept him alive this long. The path ahead remained shrouded in darkness, but now, it pulsed with a new, intriguing mystery.