Trying simple NS delegation for a subdomain * I cannot get it to load/work.

Hi this is my first post ever.
I'm stuck on a very simple task that I have not been able to get it to work.
I have done this in the past with older versions of BIND but it has been quite a while.

I'm trying to delegate to an external provider's nameserver for a "subdomain" of mine.
The parent zone file works properly and loads and serves everything as expected.
But will not load and serve my NS record pointing an external provider's DNS.

I can get much more specific as need-be
I am on and up to date version of Debian Server and up to date version of Bind9
named -v
BIND 9.18.28-1~deb12u2-Debian (Extended Support Version) <id:>

This is a generic example of what I am trying to do.
The top two parent NS records load and serve as expected.
As well as the A record of course.

But the delegated NS record at the bottom does not get loaded or served when queried for it
I am using dig as you may expect to determine this.
I must be totally missing something simple but I am totally stumped on this at the moment.


$TTL 3600

$ORIGIN domain.com.
@       IN      SOA     domain.com. admin.domain.com. (
                        2017090101      ; Serial
                        10800           ; Refresh
                        1800            ; Retry
                        1209600         ; Expire
                        3600            ; Negative Cache TTL
)

@               IN      NS      ns1.domain.com.
@               IN      NS      ns2.domain.com.

@               IN      A       1.2.3.4
www             IN      A       1.2.3.4

$ORIGIN test.domain.com.
@               IN      NS      ns1.anothernameserver.com.



dig @localhost test.domain.com NS

; <<>> DiG 9.18.28-1~deb12u2-Debian <<>> @localhost test.domain.com ns
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 59084
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232
; COOKIE: fb069e980ad743db0100000068af9952a0efd48210391401 (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;test.domain.com.                  IN      NS

;; Query time: 31 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(localhost) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Wed Aug 27 19:48:34 EDT 2025
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 69

Thank you for any pointers..
I have spent about a day searching the web before posting.
Many examples say to do it the way I am doing it.
And I've done it before this way.
Not sure what I am missing.

-SteveG

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