Deep under the Skylands surface, an ancient being noted some minor disturbances in the mana flows above itself. It wasn't causing a shortage of mana; if anything, more mana was available than usual, though the difference was small. The mana seemed a bit dirty, but the filters were still adequately handling it. They'd probably need an early replacement, so it added that to the schedule.

The cause of the disturbance was hard to determine without sending something up into the area. Unfortunately, from past experience, the ancient being knew that sending a scout was far more likely to draw the attention of whatever was moving Above than it was to escape notice and return with the information it gathered. Anything that could disturb the mana flows to that extent wouldn't miss a scout. No, it was going to have to infer what was happening from the information it could gather in other ways.

It could still reach some of the old sensors it placed in centuries past. The surface was cool but not truly cold, chill enough that there was likely snow on the ground but still well within the range where creatures would be moving on the surface seeking their safe dens for the cold and perhaps some food to take with them. That could easily explain the mana disturbances; something was taking the area Above as a den.

It must be something numerous or quite powerful to cause that much of a disturbance, and power was unlikely. The area Above was mana-starved, after all. Almost any of the creatures of power Above would choose other places, if they could.

More than that, the mana eddies didn't have the level of power that a powerful monster would create simply by existing in an area. Whatever was happening, it wasn't a single powerful creature. In many ways, that was too bad; a single powerful creature was easier to deal with if it was too much of a problem.

A large number of smaller creatures was far more likely. That had happened before and would happen again. As long as the creatures stayed Above, it was not a problem. Problems wouldn't happen unless they came deep enough to find the filters that were the first layer of protection for the ancient being buried deep beneath the frozen land.

The anomalies this time didn't quite match the past disturbances to the mana flow. They were more extensive and repeated, spread over more of the area Above. A closer look at the data revealed that not only were they more extensive, they covered the entire area near the surface that was accessible the last time it was mapped. That indicated far more creatures than had ever tried to nest there before.

It was a good thing the space was impossible to turn into a Nest or a Hollow. That many creatures would likely do it, if it weren't prevented by the ancient being's presence and countermeasures that were still functional, if old.

There was another anomaly, as well. The level of mana disturbance was relatively small and contained at first, but it grew immensely a few days later, peaked, and stabilized at a far higher level of disturbance. That must indicate a huge influx of more creatures. To take over that much room, there must be at a minimum dozens and more likely hundreds. There was not that much forage in the area. If they were carnivores, which was likely but not guaranteed, matters were even worse. Where were they getting enough food?

There were no sensors that could tell it how many beings were there directly, but it could check the temperature and humidity of the complex. With as many beings as were probably there, those would be impacted if the creatures were warm-blooded. If they weren't, well, that would be data as well.

The temperature was higher than expected but the humidity was lower. Exactly what was up there?

The ancient being was curious, but not curious enough to send a scout. It didn't want to find out what was there by having the scout followed back after it was killed; generating warriors was such a waste of mana.

After a few days, it changed its mind, at least on the creation of the constructs. It still wasn't going to send a scout, but having one was a good idea, and if it had a scout it should get started on some warriors as well. It was only willing to commit a limited amount of mana to the project, at least for now, but a head start could be important if some of the creatures sheltering above decided to explore Below while they tried to nest. It could usually safely kill stragglers and keep the others out that way.

As always when it created constructs, it sent a message to its siblings. It got the same response it had for the last one thousand, one hundred, and forty-three years: an acknowledgement from the transmission node that the message was successfully sent but no message of receipt by any of its siblings.

It knew what the complete failure probably meant; it probably meant its siblings were long dead. It didn't want to believe that, so it kept trying. They could be in the same situation it was in, after all, or they might even still be in suspended animation. With all of the humans gone, there was no one to send into the communication interspace to find out what was broken and fix it. Constructs couldn't enter; their manaforms simply dissolved. That meant it had no way to even look.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

It didn't look likely to change, either. If Kestii still existed in any form that mattered, they'd have come back long before the degradation of the suspension meant that it woke despite the lack of anyone to serve.

The ancient being considered reinitiating a temporary suspension once the constructs creation was initiated, but decided against it. The constructs needed guidance if they were to be useful against a truly invasive species. It was better that it not be in the middle of a sleep cycle if the seals were broken.

Well, if it wasn't going to go back to sleep, what was it going to do?

Was there anything it missed in the extremely limited information it could gather without revealing itself? Whatever had moved in was certainly more interesting than dealing with the recurring pump failure in the lowest level, though it should deal with that too. Maybe it was time for a new pump?

Within a few days, Sophia regretted her stunt.

Sure, it was nice to see Xin'ri boggle at the mana fireworks, but it also told her that Sophia knew something. Sophia didn't mind sharing, but she wasn't a teacher. Somehow, Xin'ri roped her into teaching her father's runescript in the evenings anyway. Her audience was small, just Dav and Xin'ri, but that didn't make it any easier.

It was time she could have spent doing other things! Okay, she wasn't sure what those things were, but still!

Life in the camp was … honestly kind of boring when they weren't exploring the ruins. The support staff, because that's what they were even if Lan'ti didn't call them that, were always busy. That wasn't quite as true for the explorers. They didn't have to cook meals or tend the horses or clean … well, everything. Sophia didn't really want to think about some of the things the support staff had to clean with only limited running water and a waste disposal system that was limited to digging big holes and slowly filling them in.

All the explorers had to do once they'd called the exploring for the night was take care of their gear, help keep watch for monsters that might be after the horses, and examine the stuff they'd discovered in the ruins. Oh, and keep their fitness up with spars and repair whatever gear for the came they could take care of …. well, okay, they were pretty busy too.

Truthfully, everyone was busy. Yes, they had time to talk and even play the occasional game, but there was always something that needed to be done. When she grumbled about it, Los'en told her that there would be time later, and that she'd eventually look back on the busy time enviously when they were all stuck inside for weeks once deep winter hit. That was why they were spending so much time getting ready for it right now, after all.

Sophia wasn't sure she agreed. There was a lot more of the underground complex to explore; were they really likely to run out of things to do? They hadn't even gone down the stairs yet!

Sophia had to push the future away and concentrate on the present, and so far what she'd found was that the preservation discs didn't make much sense to her. At all.

She didn't take any comfort in the fact that the runic system she knew made equally little sense to Xin'ri. Sophia could show that hers worked; Xin'ri couldn't. At the same time, it was unarguably true that the preservation discs had to do something, and that was far more explained by Xin'ri's knowledge than by Sophia's.

Sophia didn't really want to admit it, but the fact that Xin'ri's system didn't make any sense was probably the real reason she was annoyed at how much time everything took. She'd expected it to be a relatively simple task to map the preservation discs and figure out how they worked, but it wasn't. Every single one was unique, and according to Xin'ri that was normal. Every runic setup had to be unique because it had to deal with all of the specifics of the area; even a small variation in the thickness of the wood used for the disc or the size or shape of the protected area could make the runes fail if it wasn't accounted for, and adjusting those things was no small task.

It was ridiculous.

In the system Sophia knew, the material used mattered, all right: specifically, the mana-carrying properties mattered. Thickness only mattered if you were trying to carry too much or too little mana, and that could be handled by varying the thickness of the carving rather than the overall block of material. The space you were trying to deal with didn't have to be precise; it just had to be defined. It wasn't easy to define the space inside a wall, exactly, but it was easy enough that there was actually an example in one of Sophia's notebooks that did exactly that.

Okay, it was for a magical refrigerator, not a time-suspension box, but that didn't matter for the runic setup of that section. At least, it didn't matter in the system Sophia knew; every section was deliberately designed to be independent of the others to make it easier to create and interpret runescripts.

That wasn't true in the system used for the preservation disc. Everything had to work together. Not only did the area have to be precisely defined in space rather than by having the enchantment fill nearby air out to an external boundary, changing the position of the space relative to the nearest mana source also changed everything.

At least, that was what Sophia thought she was hearing from Xin'ri's explanations. It really made no sense to her; if it was that sensitive, how were three of them still active after however long it had been? The ones that were destroyed by time, whether they were left open and therefore nonfunctional or simply failed at some point, made sense. The three that survived must have been very lucky.

Either that or it wasn't nearly as sensitive as Xin'ri said it was. Personally, Sophia was betting on that explanation.

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