The ground trembled at midnight.
Not an earthquake. Something deeper. A pulse from below the crater, below the cradle, below everything they had ever known.
Lena woke with her hand on Lyra's arm. "Did you feel that?"
"Yes. It's coming from beneath the old city. The pre-Harvester ruins."
"The cradle?"
"Deeper. Much deeper."
---
They gathered at the crater before dawn.
Mira was there, her face etched with worry. Amara had grown into a young woman, her eyes carrying the weight of her origins. Elias stood with Seraphina, both of them pale.
"The pulse is rhythmic," Lena said. "Like a heartbeat. Something is alive down there."
"Something we didn't know existed," Mira added. "Something the Accord never found."
Seraphina stepped forward. "The Accord knew. They just didn't understand it.
