Cael moved like a shadow between ruins.
The scanner was active, but dimmed—he didn't want its signal pinging louder than necessary. Whatever was lighting up Zone C wasn't broadcasting openly, but it wanted to be seen.
That made him nervous.
The corridor ahead sloped downward, carved into the ancient bedrock by machines long dead. This wasn't part of the subway skeleton—these walls were smoother, sealed in a polymer layer that shimmered under his glowshard lamp.
Old-world tunnels.
He passed through the threshold into C–Crescent, the system confirming it with a muted chime.
[ZONE TRANSFER COMPLETE]Welcome to Subsector C–Crescent
Energy Patterns: Active (Unclassified)Air Quality: AcceptableArchitect Signature: DetectedDistance: 84 meters and closing
The lights ahead weren't natural. They were hexagonal, embedded in the stone at regular intervals. Soft white-blue pulses that reminded Cael of heartbeat monitors. Each light blinked in a pattern.
Three fast, one slow.
Then again.
Three fast, one slow.
He stopped, eyes narrowing.
That wasn't random. It was a contact protocol.
[System Alert]Visual Morse Pattern Identified:
Translation:"BUILD? YES."Repetition Rate: 14 seconds
Unknown origin, non-aggressive.
Cael exhaled slowly. His fingers hovered near the blueprint panel on his belt. If someone—or something—was trying to initiate communication through visual engineering, then it wasn't an animal.
It was another Architect.
Or something close.
He continued forward, hugging the wall, scanning for traps. None appeared. No defenses, no movement. Just lights.
The corridor opened into a circular chamber. Smooth floor. Central pillar. Four wall panels etched with geometric lines—modular anchor points. Someone had activated this space intentionally.
But no one was here.
Then his scanner chirped.
[FLOOR NODE IDENTIFIED]Architect System Mark – Signature: ALTHIS (Partial Match)
Access Node: Dormant Echo CoreActivation Available: Y/N
Althis. Again.
Whoever this ghost-builder was, they were leaving breadcrumbs—and this one pulsed beneath his boots like a heartbeat made of memory.
Cael crouched beside the pillar. Ran a hand along its surface. No dust. Recent.
He tapped the node.
[ACCESSING ECHO CORE...]
Light exploded from the pillar—vertical lines unfolding like a schematic drawn mid-air. Not full vision. Just data. A display of recent energy patterns. Blueprint drafts. Resource tallies.
And a map.
He froze.
It wasn't of the tunnel network.
It was of him.
A wireframe diagram of Hearthcore. Shelter pod. Water collector. Even the ruined tunnel from the Tunnelstalker encounter.
All observed.
All recorded.
Whoever was here had seen everything.
And below the map, a single line of code blinked, repeating in pulse format:
"You build. I watch.""Do you understand the Pattern?"
Cael stared, blood cold.
This wasn't contact. Not really.
It was evaluation.
And it wasn't finished.