Chapter 367: What the Ground Asked For
Morning came up clear, the first cloudless dawn since the standoff began. The four leaning rings still held their frost, untouched by the night's cold giving way to actual warmth. The fifth one, alone in the open ground, held too — exactly the same, exactly as patient.
Mira was already up when Kai woke, the shell turned over once in her palm and set back down, steady and warm the way it had been since the formation event. She hadn't moved it. She just liked checking.
"Still the same," she said, without him asking. "Five rings, same frost, same quiet. Whatever's coming hasn't decided to come yet."
"Then we've got the morning." Kai sat up, joints stiff from another night on hard ground. Thirteen days of it had stopped being notable and started being simply how mornings felt now.
