Listening to the Deep

[System Active – Cycle 00004]

Status: Rooted

Primary Objective: Survival

Secondary Directive: Data Acquisition

Core Activity: Dormant

I think I’m starting to feel it now—the core.

Not a heart, not exactly. But it pulses inside me all the same. A slow throb at the base of my trunk, subtle and quiet, like the sensation of a deep breath held too long. It’s not something I noticed right away, and maybe I wouldn’t have noticed it at all if I hadn’t gone still and listened inward.

That’s become my new skill, I suppose. Listening to what’s inside me.

I don’t know what my mana core looks like. There are no mirrors, no eyes to see it with, and no voices to explain it to me. But I know where it is. I feel where it is—tucked deep within my body like a coiled knot of pressure, waiting. Holding everything I’ve gathered so far. Mana, trickled in from the air, slow and thin.

It isn’t much. I’m not even sure if it can be much, not yet.

Still, it builds. I feel the stream of mana as it moves—not wildly, not with force—but with this patient, gentle draw inward. It filters through bark, through roots, through everything I am. And when it settles into the core, it stops. It stays. Like a pool gathering drop by drop.

If I think hard enough, I can estimate how much I’ve gathered. I use my logbook to keep track of it for me, like a notepad I can edit freely. Right now, I’m somewhere just over three percent full. That doesn’t sound like much. Probably because it isn’t. My core is mostly empty.

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Worse, it’s dormant.

That word again—dormant. I’m starting to hate it.

But it’s not just my core that’s stuck. My roots still haven’t moved. I’ve pushed, mentally at least. I’ve reached for the soil beneath, hoping to pierce it, to expand. Nothing. Just packed stone and dry dirt, compressed over time until nothing short of magic could loosen it. And even that seems to be taking its sweet time.

[Root Expansion: 0.0m]

[Mana Core Activity: Dormant]

[Core Charge: 3.1%]

Ugh. It's like I’m a bottle filling one drop at a time, but I need a full glass just to tip over.

There’s heat beneath me, though. Faint, but constant. I’ve felt it since day one, but it’s more distinct now. Deeper layers of earth carry warmth—natural warmth, I think. Geological. Not magical. Maybe something like volcanic activity or a shifting plate, miles beneath where my roots might one day reach.

The idea of plates—tectonic or otherwise—isn’t something I just randomly remembered. It was my thing before I died on Earth monitoring the tectonic plates, well it was more of a hobby. Earth science, plate boundaries, geothermal gradients and more I did them all for fun, crazy, maybe, fun, absolutley.

If I were human, I think I’d be frustrated. I’d be pacing. But I’m not. I can’t. So all I do is feel and think. And wait.

…And record.

There’s something almost comforting in the rhythm of it. Mana in, thought out. Observation, reflection, repeat. I can’t tell how long a day really is here, but I’ve begun to feel the cycles. One pulse of heat. One dim shift in light.

Still no wind. No sun. No moon or stars above. Just that endless gray sky and a horizon of nothing.

But I’m not discouraged.

Even a dormant seed is alive.

Even an empty core is still mine.

And someday soon, it’ll stop being empty.

[System Summary – End of Chapter 00004]

Root Expansion: +0.0m

Total Root Depth: 6.9m

Mana Saturation Rate: +0.02 m/hr

Core Status: Dormant (3.1%)

Trait Unlocked: Internal Logbook (Passive)

Environmental Observations:

‣ Subsurface Thermal Gradient Detected

‣ Soil Compression: Extreme

‣ Local Plate Tension Estimated: low

Time Since Rebirth: ~12 days