Location:Zhū'kethara — Verdant Shelf / Bondseer's Chamber
Date/Time:Ashbloom, 9942 AZI — Month 6
Realm:Demon Realm
The offerings appeared on the third morning.
Ren found them at the eastern entrance of Zhū'kethara, laid on the stone threshold in careful arrangement: braided cord, wildflowers from the Verdant Shelf, clay bowls of grain from the first lowland harvest, small figurines shaped from dark loam. The offerings faced east, toward the rising light, toward the direction the old prayers had always faced. Toward Ala.
Nobody had organized this. Nobody had announced it or suggested it or distributed instructions. The demons of Zhū'kethara had simply begun to pray, the way water finds its level, the way roots find the earth. The rite had worked. Children were coming. And the people who had been waiting thousands of years for a sign that the world remembered them had responded with the oldest language they knew.
Faith.
