Kael lingered in the chamber a moment longer after the light faded.
The pedestal had gone quiet again, and the emerald glow along the walls dimmed until the carvings returned to shadow.
Whatever the chamber had given him, it seemed finished for now.
He slid his glove back over his hand and retrieved the steel rod leaning against the pillar. The familiar weight steadied him.
Kael took one last slow look around the ancient room.
The pedestal.
The carved walls.
The silent stone that had somehow taught him how to listen to the earth itself.
"This place isn't finished with me," he murmured.
Then he turned and headed back into the tunnel.
◇
The journey back felt different.
Before, the tunnels had been dark and uncertain.
Now the mountain felt… present around him.
Not threatening.
Just there.
As Kael walked, subtle shifts moved through the soles of his boots.
The weight of the rock above.
The hollow spaces where tunnels branched deeper into the mountain.
The slow pressure holding everything together.
It was strange.
But it felt natural.
Like discovering a sense he had somehow always possessed.
The underground stream appeared again ahead of him, water sliding quietly across the stone floor.
Kael stepped across it easily.
He could feel where the rock beneath the water had worn thin over time, where fractures ran deep below the surface.
He paused briefly.
The mountain hummed quietly.
Then something moved in the tunnel ahead.
Scrape.
Kael stopped.
The sound came again.
Claws scraping across stone.
A familiar shape emerged from the darkness.
Another Stone Skulker.
The creature slowed as it approached the cavern, its narrow head twitching as it sensed the ground.
Kael didn't raise the rod this time.
Instead he stood still.
Listening.
The skulker circled cautiously, clearly uncertain.
Its clawed feet tapped lightly against the rock as it tested the vibrations in the ground.
Kael focused on the sensation beneath his boots.
The structure of the stone.
The subtle pressure beneath the creature's feet.
Without moving his hands, he pushed gently through the earth itself.
Not violently.
Just enough to send a subtle tremor through the rock.
The ground beneath the skulker shifted slightly.
The creature froze.
Its head snapped toward Kael.
For a moment it remained perfectly still.
Then it backed away.
One slow step.
Then another.
The skulker turned and retreated down the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.
Kael watched it go.
"…Good," he said quietly.
The mountain hummed beneath his feet again.
This time it felt almost approving.
Kael continued toward the larger cavern where the sinkhole opened above.
Moonlight spilled faintly down from the shaft far overhead.
The collapsed slabs were still wedged halfway up the opening.
Twenty meters above the cavern floor.
Exactly where they had been when the miners pulled him out.
Kael studied the wall beside the shaft.
Rough stone offered plenty of handholds.
With the rope still hanging down and the rock now feeling strangely predictable beneath his fingers, the climb didn't feel nearly as daunting as before.
He secured the steel rod at his belt and began climbing.
The stone guided him.
Not literally.
But he could feel where the rock would hold.
Where it was strongest.
Within a few minutes he reached the wedged slabs.
Moonlight shone brightly through the narrow gaps between them.
Kael pulled himself onto a stable ledge and studied the rocks closely.
Earlier, squeezing through them had been dangerous.
Now he could feel exactly how the slabs pressed against each other.
Where the weight rested.
Where the tension held them in place.
Kael removed one glove and pressed his palm against the nearest slab.
The rune on his hand pulsed faintly.
He closed his eyes.
And listened.
The mountain answered.
Pressure.
Weight.
Balance.
Instead of trying to force the rock upward, Kael pushed gently against the tension holding the slab in place.
The stone shifted.
A deep grinding sound echoed through the shaft.
Kael opened his eyes.
The slab slid slowly sideways, guided by the pressure he applied through the earth itself.
Dust drifted down as the rock settled against the shaft wall.
Kael exhaled slowly.
"That worked."
The next slab moved even easier.
One by one, the wedged rocks shifted aside, sliding back into stable positions along the walls of the shaft.
Moonlight poured freely down through the opening now.
Kael leaned back slightly, staring upward at the clear path.
Earlier that day it had taken an entire mining crew hours to move only a few stones.
Now the blockage was nearly gone.
He looked down at his hand.
The faint rune still glowed softly beneath the dust on his skin.
Kael flexed his fingers slowly.
The mountain hummed quietly around him.
Then he pulled his glove back on and continued climbing toward the surface.
Whatever the Aethari had left beneath this mountain…
It had just given him the power to move it.