The ground moved again.
Not a tremor.
Not an earthquake.
Something beneath the city was turning.
The motion traveled across the valley in a slow wave. Soil lifted beneath the bowed plants, rolled toward them, then settled.
For the first time since stepping through the Aurelith, Mark saw fear in the garden.
Leaves pulled tightly against stalks.
Veyra closed their glowing centers.
The floating plants dropped toward the ground.
Even the tall silver alien watched the city without moving.
Caleb broke the silence.
"Whatever that is, I vote we don't meet it."
The Keeper looked at him.
"We may not have that choice."
Mark turned toward Lily.
"What did he tell you?"
Lily looked at the alien.
She didn't know his name.
She wasn't even sure he had one that could be spoken.
But she could feel him.
Not his thoughts exactly.
Intent.
Urgency.
Fear.
"He wants us inside the city."
"Why?"
Lily concentrated.
The alien's eyes brightened.
A sensation passed through her.
Images.
Roots.
Darkness.
Something spreading.
"It's sick."
Elena frowned.
"The alien?"
Lily shook her head.
"The city."
The alien turned and began walking.
The plants rose behind him as he passed.
A path opened through the valley.
Mark looked at the others.
"Stay together."
They followed.
The closer they came to the city, the more unnatural it became.
From a distance, its towers had appeared to be made of stone.
They weren't.
The material was smooth and pale, but faint patterns moved beneath its surface like veins beneath skin.
Elena touched one of the enormous pillars at the entrance.
"It's warm."
Caleb stared upward.
"Please don't tell me the city is alive too."
The Keeper answered.
"Everything here is connected."
"That's not a no."
They entered.
The streets were enormous.
Too large for humans.
Buildings curved upward on either side, their entrances varying wildly in size and shape.
Some could have admitted a person.
Others could have admitted something twenty feet tall.
Mark remembered the footprints beneath the Aurelith.
Different species.
Different visitors.
"This wasn't built for one kind of creature."
The Keeper nodded.
"No."
Elena looked around.
"It was built for everyone."
The thought should have been comforting.
It wasn't.
There were no bodies.
No debris.
No signs of destruction.
The city looked as though its inhabitants had simply walked away.
Then Lily stopped.
"Listen."
Everyone froze.
A sound came from beneath them.
Scratch.
Pause.
Scratch.
Caleb's expression changed.
"That's the same sound."
Mark remembered immediately.
Inside the Aurelith.
The sound that had led them to the Keeper.
Scratch.
Pause.
Scratch.
But this was deeper.
Much deeper.
And enormous.
The alien placed his hand against the street.
Golden lines appeared beneath his palm.
They spread outward, racing through the city.
For several seconds nothing happened.
Then a circular section of the street began descending.
A platform.
The alien stepped onto it.
Lily followed.
Mark grabbed her arm.
"Hold on."
She looked at him.
"He wants to show us."
"We've followed enough things on this planet."
Lily glanced toward the alien.
"No. This is different."
"How?"
"He's not asking me to follow."
She swallowed.
"He's asking for help."
Mark released her.
One by one, they stepped onto the platform.
The Keeper came last.
The platform descended.
Sunlight disappeared.
The city closed above them.
They went down for what felt like minutes.
Hundreds of feet.
Maybe thousands.
The walls around them changed as they descended.
Pale gold became gray.
Gray became black.
The glowing veins disappeared.
The Keeper noticed.
"The Network doesn't reach here."
Mark looked at him.
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know."
The platform stopped.
Darkness surrounded them.
Then the alien raised his hand.
A faint blue light appeared.
The chamber beyond was enormous.
And filled with roots.
Black roots.
Thousands of them.
They covered the walls.
Wrapped around pillars.
Burrowed through the floor.
Unlike the glowing Network, these roots absorbed light.
They looked burned.
Dead.
Except they were moving.
Slowly.
Caleb whispered, "Those aren't dead."
One root tightened around a nearby column.
The material cracked.
Elena stepped backward.
"It's consuming the city."
The alien looked at Lily.
Images flooded her mind again.
The Aurelith.
The Network.
The city.
Then darkness spreading outward beneath the planet.
Lily gasped.
Mark caught her.
"What?"
She struggled to explain.
"The Aurelith isn't the only one."
The Keeper stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
"There are others."
"Other Aureliths?"
She nodded.
"All over the planet."
The Keeper's face changed.
He had spent decades believing the Aurelith was unique.
Lily continued.
"They're connected."
Elena looked at the black roots.
"And this?"
Lily's voice dropped.
"It's connected too."
Something moved far across the chamber.
Not a root.
Something between them.
Mark raised his flashlight.
The beam crossed pillars wrapped in black growth.
Then stopped.
A shape stood in the distance.
Large.
Low to the ground.
It moved behind another pillar.
Caleb tightened his grip on the metal tool.
"Please tell me that's another friendly gardener."
The alien suddenly stepped in front of Lily.
Protective.
The blue lines across his body flared brightly.
A sound erupted from the darkness.
Deep.
Wet.
Angry.
The black roots began moving faster.
All of them.
The Keeper backed toward the platform.
"We need to go."
The alien didn't move.
Neither did Lily.
She was staring at the floor.
A tiny point of silver light had appeared between the black roots.
Then another.
And another.
The Network.
It was trying to break through.
The black roots immediately twisted toward the light.
Attacking it.
Silver and darkness collided beneath their feet.
The entire chamber shook.
Then Lily heard the voice.
Not the ancient voice from the Aurelith.
Something else.
Something colder.
It spoke from beneath the black roots.
Listener.
Lily froze.
Mark saw her face.
"What?"
She couldn't answer.
The voice came again.
You hear them.
The black roots stopped moving.
Every one.
Silence filled the chamber.
Then—
Now hear me.
Lily slowly looked toward the darkness.
Two enormous eyes opened.
Not twenty feet away.
Not fifty.
Across the entire far wall.
The thing they thought had moved behind the pillars hadn't been walking among the roots.
The roots were growing from it.
The Keeper whispered:
"What is that?"
The alien lowered his head.
For the first time since they had met him...
he bowed.
But not in respect.
In terror.
Lily stared at the enormous eyes.
And understood.
The garden had not been hiding this creature.
The garden had been holding it down.
For thousands of years.
And now—
it was awake.