West of the find, the terrain changed.
The coral-like growths thinned out, replaced by ground cover that moved slower and deeper, a respiration so long that Cael had to stand still for thirty seconds to feel the full cycle. The soil, if it was soil, had a grey cast to it, and the organic structures that rose in the distance were older here. Larger. The branching forms looked less like they'd grown and more like they'd accreted, layer on layer over something he couldn't see.
He stopped at the edge of a shallow basin, one hand on a low outcropping, reading the area through Hollow Step while the Hound sorted the sensory input behind his sternum. The alertness from the object discovery hadn't faded. It had settled into a steady watchfulness, the kind that meant the wrong thing was still ahea
