Chapter 51 - Chapter 51: The Stone Breath

The light within The Glowing Hearth did not change with the rising of a sun, for there was no sun in the hollowed-out womb of the earth. Instead, the gargantuan turquoise crystals embedded in the cavern's vaulted ceiling—the bioluminescent heart of the mountain—underwent a rhythmic chromatic shift. The dim, oceanic blue that signaled the cycle of rest slowly pulsed, warming into a rich, flickering amber-orange. This transition was accompanied by the deep, resonant tolling of the Great Anvil Bell, a sound that vibrated through the bedrock itself, signaling a new day. In Terragard, time was not measured by the rotation of a planet, but by the "Stone Breath"—the geothermal heartbeat of the mountain, regulated with obsessive care by the Dwarven artisans.