Chapter 116: Roots and vows
Morning light spread like molten gold across the Forgotten Atlanta Expanse, glinting off shattered glass towers and weaving through overgrown highways swallowed by moss and creeping vine.
The Rootsite hummed softly beneath the rising sun, alive with a vitality that hadn’t existed here for centuries.
Once a broken ruin, this place now thrummed with a heartbeat... Clayton’s heartbeat. The heartbeat of a resident Verdant Lord.
He stood alone atop a ridge of living roots overlooking the enclave.
Dew clung to his verdant skin, glittering faintly like starlight. For the first time in months, the distant cries of Behemorphs had vanished, replaced by birdsong and the whispering rustle of flora swayed by a gentle breeze.
The city was quiet. It shouldn’t have been.
Clayton’s gaze swept the settlement below.
The civilians bustled with a fragile rhythm, carrying supplies scavenged from surrounding ruins, stacking salvaged metal and stone into makeshift shelters fused with Verdant biomass.
Mara directed a cooking station near the center, smoke curling skyward as she prepared meals.
The twins, Kael and Mira, crouched in the gardens near the Rootsite’s base, their small hands glowing faintly as they coaxed vegetables from rich, fertile soil.
Trist stood sentinel along the perimeter, tense but alert, his Aspect’s danger-sense flaring whenever the wind shifted wrong.
While Clayton and the others left to explore the Nexus vault, Lorn already did a great job as not only did she get closer to the other personality and body of Clayton, but she also helped the civilians truly settle in, assigning them duties in the Rootsite.