Grachus remains poised over the opened cavity, longsword raised above the black glass disc. Its pulse quickens, and the tower stones answer with a deep beat from below.
Hadrin
Wait. The channel is drawing power from beneath the tower, not merely sending it outward.
Hadrin crouches beside the foundation, tracing the pale veins with a broken stick. He follows them beneath the cavity, where the grit knots around something deeper.
The Rider
Break it now! Another pulse may carry past the village before you find what lies below.
The exhausted horse jerks against its reins and stamps hard. Dust spills from the tower stones, while the disc flashes black, then grey, in a faster rhythm.
Hadrin
If you shatter the heart, the buried channel may collapse. If you hesitate, it may finish waking.
A fourth pulse rolls through the foundation. The iron-banded cavity trembles beneath Grachus's blade, and something below the black glass answers with a slow scrape.