The construction began before sunrise—or what passed for it in the Deep.
There was no sun, no sky, no horizon. Only the soft pulse of geothermal light and the orange haze of active crystalwork. Yet somehow, the people of Hearthcore moved with purpose, as if instinct told them that this morning mattered.
Cael stood beside the wall near the shelter's main archway, watching as three survivors—Rend, Arna, and the teenager Malen—gathered the first materials for the Monument Panel.
He had built the foundation. That part was easy.
But now came something harder: letting go.
[PROJECT – "Memory Wall"]Type: Civic Morale StructureParticipants: Open to PublicSystem Status: Passive Construction Active
Suggested Prompts:– "Who did you lose?"– "What did your old world sound like?"– "What should we never forget?"
He had expected names. Maybe dates. A few scratched symbols.
What he hadn't expected was stories.
Rend etched the name Sola into the first panel. Under it, a short line:
"She was faster than the collapse, just not faster than the dust."
Simple. Devastating.
Arna added a drawing—crudely burned into the stone with a heating coil. A flower, its petals curling inward. "It only bloomed after the last rain," she whispered.
Then Malen stepped forward.
He was quiet, always had been. But now he pressed his hand against the unmarked section and said just three words:
"I was left."
The wall glowed softly, reacting to the imprint. The system registered the input and etched a faint golden outline around the mark.
Not for emphasis.
For protection.
[CIVIC MEMORY STAMPED]Memory Type: Personal TraumaSettlement Morale Impact: +2% (Long-Term Stabilization)
Trait Progression: Empathic Architecture (0.3%)
Note: Future structures may adapt appearance based on collective emotion log.
Cael blinked.
That wasn't in the manual.
He opened the system logs. There, hidden beneath the UI layer, a new thread had begun forming. Not blueprints. Not tech.
Emotion maps.
The wall was learning what kind of city they were becoming—not from him, but from them.
"Hey," said a voice behind him.
Cael turned. It was Myla.
She had arrived without a word sometime during the night. He hadn't even noticed.
Now she stood with her hands in her coat pockets, eyes fixed on the wall.
"You finally let them build something."
Cael nodded. "It was time."
She smirked.
"It always was. You just needed the fear to wear off."
Before he could reply, she walked up to the panel, pulled a shard of rusted metal from her belt, and carved two overlapping circles into the stone. No words.
But Cael recognized it.
The ancient Architect symbol for continuity.
[MONUMENT COMPLETED – PHASE I]System Response: Passive Morale Buffer Active
Bonus Effect:• Emotional Signature embedded in civic designs• Settlement aligned toward Legacy Bias – future citizens will instinctively value preservation
Cael exhaled.
It had begun as a wall.
Now it was a voice.