Tessine

Nieve Soranto has spent her life carving tessarine out of Kethara's bones, because that is what her family does and because the mining stipend keeps her mother breathing. Then her drill opens a chamber no geologist can explain, her resonator sister touches the wall and speaks in a language nobody has ever heard, and the Imperium seals the site within hours. What lies beneath Kethara is not a mineral. It is awake, it is dying, and it has eighteen months left.