The Sun Was Not Only in the Sky

After the Sunscorch Front was established, border surveillance was raised to a higher level.

Every fixed post was manned by three people in rotation, each keeping watch for eight hours, with no one permitted to leave without authorization.

When the Spine Tree broke through the soil behind the thicket of vines on the western border, the sentry on duty noticed the anomaly immediately, but at first, she did not realize what it meant.

She only felt that the shape of those green shoots was utterly different from the Vanguard Vine.

Vanguard Vine crawled low and spread sideways, occupying space by creeping outward, like a wind-ruffled carpet unfurling close against the earth.

But these newborn shoots grew straight upward.

They were thin yet strong, thrusting straight out of the ground.

The sentry stared at those shoots, remembered something, and turned again to run toward the core of the settlement.

When she told the leader what she had observed, the moment she reached the words "growing upward," a change so subtle it was almost imperceptible came over him.

"Gather all the excavators in the square. Call every lightwright and Medium as well."

There was no particular change in the leader's tone as he spoke. He simply pressed his palm to the trunk of the Echo Tree.

He was seeking "Apocalypse," reconnecting himself with the collective memory.

"There's still time," he said to the sentry.

"Those saplings will still need time to grow. We have to use every bit of that time to think one thing through."

"What thing?"

"What's underground."

The Spine Trees did not grow as swiftly as the Vanguard Vine, but they possessed extraordinary tenacity.

They rose from the ground in an orderly fashion, climbing section by section.

A mature Spine Tree exceeded thirty meters in height, and once