Westhaven - Eastern City Limits, Same Evening
The tree John had selected provided adequate vantage despite serving no tactical purpose beyond comfortable waiting. It was old growth—maybe two hundred years, thick trunk supporting branches that spread wide enough to create substantial canopy, positioned near the road where Helena and Kiran would easily find him when they returned from investigating whatever disturbance had captured their concern.
His ki perception mapped the city three kilometers distant, the hundred-meter range insufficient to observe specific events but adequate to detect general patterns of disruption: mana signatures moving with panic rather than routine purpose, smoke rising from multiple locations in ways that suggested intentional fire rather than accidental conflagration, the distinctive energy patterns of earth manipulation being used aggressively rather than for construction or artistic shaping.
