Don't Be Consumed by Your Own Loneliness

Soon, she heard a second voice.

"Are you listening?"

Vivi's gaze sharpened.

She had heard that voice before.

"I'm listening," Vivi said softly.

After her answer, the heat wave deep within the hollow surged even more violently, as if no one had answered him in nine thousand years—and now, at last, someone was willing to answer.

Vivi withdrew her hand from the hollow and stood up.

After she straightened, the crystal's dark red glow grew steadier, silver white and dark red weaving through the basement into a flowing net of light.

She turned and walked toward the edge of the hollow, and the silver white light membrane held her up as she floated.

She returned to the cave at Node Seven, surfacing from the water in the circular depression.

Harry was crouched beside the depression, one hand reaching toward her.

She took his hand and climbed out of the water.

"Found it?" Harry asked.

Vivi took the Rhombus Crystal from her pocket, its dark red glow especially striking amid the cave's silver white light.

"This is the key to the passage leading deep into the earth's core."

Kingsley came over from the cave entrance and looked at the crystal in Vivi's hand.

"Are you really going down there?"

"I definitely have to go, but not now," Vivi said. "I need time to prepare. I need to know the passage's exact location and depth, and I need to know what I'll run into after I go down. That person built the passage nine thousand years ago, but she never went down herself. She was the first, but I can't be the first person to go down completely unprepared."

"The Confederation Technical Group will complete a remote scan of the passage within an hour," Kingsley said.

Cassandra walked to Vivi's side and