Kael Holt adjusted the weight of the scanner on his shoulder and tried to ignore the laughter drifting up from the quarry floor.
It wasn't loud laughter.
Just the quiet kind miners used when they didn't care if you heard.
He crouched near the ridge and set the scanning unit down. The machine hummed softly as it projected a grid across the rock face.
Below him, a group of miners stood in a loose circle around a fresh rock seam.
One of them—Barek, a broad-shouldered Terravan with dust permanently baked into the lines of his face—placed a hand against the ground.
He closed his eyes.
The others waited.
A moment later Barek nodded slowly.
"Crystal vein runs north," he said. "About six meters down."
Another miner grinned.
"See? Told you."
The group began marking drilling points immediately.
No scanners.
No sensors.
Just instinct.
Kael looked down at his own equipment.
The scanner beeped quietly as it processed the rock layers.
He tried not to feel self-conscious.
Behind him someone whistled.
"Well look at that," a voice called. "The machine's doing the thinking again."
Kael turned.
Three miners had climbed partway up the ridge behind him. One of them—a lean man named Tovan—gestured toward the scanner with a smirk.
"Careful with that thing," Tovan said. "Wouldn't want it replacing us."
A few chuckles followed.
Kael forced a small shrug.
"Someone has to make sure you're digging in the right place." Kael said.
Tovan raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? The ground whisper that to you?"
More laughter.
Kael didn't respond.
There was no point.
Everyone here knew the truth.
Every Terravan could feel the earth beneath their feet—its weight, its pressure, its shifting layers.
Everyone except him.
Tovan crouched beside the scanner and tapped its metal casing.
"You know," he said casually, "if you went to the Stone Academy like the rest of us, you wouldn't need this pile of scrap."
Kael folded his arms.
"You need the Academy for that?"
Another miner snorted.
"Not everyone's born Groundless, Holt."
The word hung in the air like dust.
Groundless.
It wasn't shouted as an insult.
On Terrava it was simply a fact.
A person without elemental affinity.
A person the planet didn't speak to.
Tovan stood and dusted his hands.
"Don't take it personal," he said. "Machines are useful."
He gestured toward the quarry floor.
"Someone's gotta push the buttons."
The group laughed again before heading back down the ridge.
Kael watched them go.
His jaw tightened slightly.
He'd heard worse growing up.
Kids in the settlement had been less polite, sparing no feelings.
But hearing it from grown miners never felt much better.
Heavy footsteps approached from behind.
"Let them talk."
Kael glanced over his shoulder.
His father, Garrick Holt, stepped up beside him.
The older man rested a thick hand on the ridge railing and looked out across the quarry.
"They don't understand machines," Garrick said.
"They understand the ground."
Kael gestured toward the scanner.
"And I understand this."
Garrick nodded approvingly.
"That's why it works."
Kael crouched again and checked the scan results.
The machine chirped softly.
Something caught his eye.
He frowned.
"That's strange."
"What is?" Garrick asked.
Kael rotated the display toward him.
"There's a density pocket beneath the ridge."
His father leaned closer.
"How big?"
"Hard to tell."
Kael zoomed in on the projection.
"It's deep… maybe twenty meters."
Garrick studied the rock face above the quarry.
"Crystal seam?"
Kael shook his head slowly.
"Doesn't look like a seam."
The scanner pulsed again.
The density reading sharpened.
It almost looked like—
A single formation.
Kael stood and walked a few steps higher along the ridge.
Loose gravel slid beneath his boots.
Behind him Garrick said, "Careful."
Kael planted a probe into the soil.
The scanner beeped sharply.
Signal confirmed.
"Definitely something down there," Kael said.
Then the ground shifted.
Just slightly.
Kael frowned.
Pebbles rolled down the slope.
Behind him Garrick stiffened.
"You feel that?" his father asked.
Kael opened his mouth to answer.
The earth cracked.
The ridge exploded beneath his feet.
Stone shattered as the ground collapsed inward.
For a single heartbeat Kael hung suspended above the quarry.
Then the world vanished beneath him.
He fell.