He saw it before he heard anything.
Hour forty-one. The thirty-second marker, the forest's upper edge where the canopy thinned and the ridge was visible fifty meters north. Four minutes into the dwell. Vane was reading the next approach when the movement caught his eye through the trees.
Not on the island. Below it.
The Abyss Ocean surrounding Zenith's underside was not normally visible from the sector's terrain. The island's mass blocked the angle. But from the upper edge at this elevation, looking north across the ridge, the ocean was visible as a thin dark line at the island's lower perimeter where the foundation met the open air. Where solid stone gave way to empty sky, and below that, the endless dark of the Abyss.
He'd noted this sightline on the preparation walks and hadn't found it relevant. Just an interesting geometrical quirk of the terrain.
It was relevant now.
The thin dark line was not dark.
It was lit from below.
Vane's chest went cold.
