The campfire crackled softly against the twilight that marked another day's end outside the Viraldean Temple. Ten days of this routine had worn grooves into the routine that Alfred Montclair and Thorne Ackerman had established - careful rationing, systematic patrol schedules, and the kind of professional vigilance that kept expedition members alive when circumstances demanded extended isolation in hostile territory.
Thorne stirred the flames with a charred stick, his weathered face reflecting firelight that danced across features marked by decades of dangerous work. His spatial ring yielded another portion of rations that represented increasingly precious resources as their supplies dwindled toward levels that would soon demand difficult decisions about mission continuation versus survival necessities.
