The air down here was thick—salt mixed with something else, something that felt old and electric. They were deep inside Vael'Tor, the Myrvane city they'd carved right into the ocean floor. Nothing like the constant hum you'd hear in Ashari labs or that earthy smell hanging around Thornkin groves.
This place had its own pulse, this low, living energy that made you feel like the city had a heartbeat. The bioluminescent consoles threw soft, shifting light everywhere, their surfaces all tangled up with tech that looked more grown than built.
Micah stood next to Captain Marella Seaborn and Lio Venn. That mission to the Omniraith forge out in the Twilight Rifts? Way too close for comfort. Sure, they'd gotten away from Omnicide, but that whole thing about a traitor in Ashari ranks kept eating at him.
At least now they could finally take a look at what they'd nearly died for—the artifact they'd pulled from that forge.
There it was, sitting on this pressure-sealed table. Strange, dark thing that you couldn't quite tell if it was metal or something alive. It had this weight to it, like it was carrying all this forgotten history.
Looked like a piece of that ancient "Hollow" network everyone talked about—the one that was supposed to be older than any of their civilizations.
"It's fighting our standard analysis," Marella said in that careful, measured way the Myrvane always talked. Her dark exo-armor was still dripping onto the metal floor. "Our usual tools... they just seem to piss it off."
Lio leaned in closer—kid was always the tech genius—his eyes going wide with that mix of fascination and worry he got. "The energy readings are all over the place. Like it doesn't want us looking at it." The guy had this weird gift for understanding technology, even the alien stuff or the corrupted junk they'd run into.
Micah reached out without thinking, his fingers finding the artifact's surface. There it was again—that faint pulse he'd felt before, the same one tied to whatever was sending signals from beneath the Thornkin forest. The thing that had called him "steelborn."
The moment his hand made contact, everything changed. The artifact just... stopped fighting them. Those crazy energy readings went calm, and this soft light started glowing from inside the thing, throwing up a broken, shimmering hologram right above the table. Complex stuff—all shifting shapes and symbols that looked kind of like Ashari Glyphs, but way older. You could tell it was just a piece of something much bigger.
"Whoa," Lio whispered, fingers flying over his diagnostic device. "That's... incredible. This isn't just some object—it's like a data node. And the energy signature? It's the exact same one we picked up under the Ironroot Grove. The 'Hollow' signal."
Micah's heart was hammering. This thing they'd grabbed from an Omniraith forge was connected to that ancient network hiding under the Thornkin forest. "The signal that knew who I was," he said quietly, that word 'steelborn' still echoing in his head.
Lio was working like crazy, matching up the data from the hologram with all the readings he'd taken from the Hollow signal. "Captain Marella," he said, looking up with that urgent tone in his voice. "There's a match. A real deep connection. This artifact... it's built to link up with another node. One that's been sleeping."
He paused, glancing at Micah, then back at Marella. "And according to the old Ashari records I dug into... that sleeping node is in Elora. Sector Gamma-Prime."
The prototype they'd pulled from Sector Gamma-Prime—the one Kaelin had hauled back to Elora—was the other half. This artifact from way down in Myrvane territory and that prototype from up in the Ashari mountains were pieces of the same ancient puzzle.
Marella's visor didn't give anything away, but her whole body went tense. "Two pieces," she said slowly, her voice heavy. "One we found in our waters, stolen from an Omniraith site. The other... sitting in your capital. And someone in your capital was feeding intel to the Omniraith, helping them target us."
The accusation just hung there in the air. The traitor. Someone who knew their moves, knew about the mission to the hollow ancient structure. That kind of information could only come from inside Ashari command or someone real close to it. The enemy within was getting as dangerous as the Omniraith themselves.
Micah felt that familiar conflict twisting in his gut. His people were all about keeping secrets, being efficient, only sharing what absolutely had to be shared. Ashari Command had ordered him and Lio to come back for "containment and analysis" after they found the Hollow signal. They'd said no, choosing to keep the whole "steelborn" thing and the Hollow to themselves.
But Kaelin's warning about Command prepping some militarized expedition into Thornkin territory showed them that keeping secrets wasn't safe anymore. Every hidden piece, every truth they held back, could end up being used against them.
Micah stared at that broken schematic floating above the artifact, then at Marella, whose people had taken losses they partly blamed on late warnings. He thought about the Thornkin forest, dying from Omniraith blight, all connected to this ancient network. He thought about the Core Nexus, that Omniraith super-AI getting ready to rewrite everything. This wasn't just about the Ashari anymore. This was about the whole damn world.
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with that thick, salty air. His mind was made up. Time for the truth, no matter what it cost.
"We need to put it all out there," Micah said, his voice steady even with the weight of what he was saying. "Both artifacts. The signal. The 'steelborn' thing. What the Omniraith are really planning—not just taking over, but wiping out existence itself. And... the chance there's a traitor in Ashari leadership."
Marella studied him through that visor for a long moment, sizing up whether he meant it. She knew about his losses, his fight to stay human. She knew the Thornkin had given him a seed as a sign of trust.
Lio nodded fast, that youthful hope of his cutting through his worry. "Micah's right. We can't do this alone, and we can't keep secrets that might get us all killed." He looked at Marella. "You Myrvane have one piece here. We Ashari have the other in Elora. What if... what if we brought both pieces together? In Elora? Had a summit? Ashari, Thornkin, Myrvane... everybody."
It was a hell of a proposal. A multi-faction summit was asking for trouble, what with the shaky alliance and all that history of not trusting each other. The Thornkin didn't like outsiders, especially after past screw-ups. The Myrvane blamed the Ashari for delays that got people killed. And now there was this shadow of a traitor in the Ashari hanging over everything.
But Lio's thinking made sense. The truth could only protect them if everyone knew it and worked together. Bringing the artifacts together might show them more about the Hollow—maybe some kind of failsafe or warning system the ancients built.
Marella went quiet for a while, working through what it all meant. The idea of spilling Myrvane secrets and past mistakes, of trusting the Ashari despite the betrayal and those delays, was risky as hell. But the threat of the Omniraith rewriting existence? That was do-or-die stuff. The weird signals, the 'harvesting' of her people, the dying forest—it was all tied together.
"Alright," Marella said finally, her voice still careful but with new determination. "Hiding this knowledge is riskier than sharing it. We'll put together a diplomatic convoy to Elora."
She gestured at the artifact. "We'll bring this piece. Your sleeping node's already there."
Decision made. Some of that tension lifted, replaced by fragile hope. Staying alive wasn't about factions keeping their secrets anymore—it was about sharing what they knew and working together.
As Myrvane officers started prepping, securing the artifact for transport and figuring out the route through deep-sea tunnels and maybe some abandoned mountain caves, Micah felt that familiar weight of responsibility settling on his shoulders.
He was a scout, a survivor, marked by old traumas and the weird, unsettling truth of being 'steelborn.' He was carrying his people's future, the shaky trust of his allies, and the growing threat of betrayal from their own side.
This wasn't just about grabbing relics or stopping machines anymore. This was about facing truths—about themselves, their allies, and the hidden enemy in their own ranks.
The trip to Elora was going to be long and dangerous. The Omniraith never quit, the alliance was hanging by a thread, and that traitor was still out there somewhere. But for the first time since finding the Hollow, Micah felt a sense of purpose that went beyond just staying alive.
He wasn't just fighting a war—he was fighting for openness, for unity, for the chance to build something better from the wreckage.
The Myrvane got their convoy ready. The artifact they'd just recovered from the forge—a key to some ancient power—got carefully packed up alongside Myrvane diplomatic personnel. They'd make the long, dangerous journey from the ocean depths to the Ashari mountain capital, Elora.
There, in the heart of the mountain city, the two pieces of the Hollow network would finally come together. The summit would begin.