Chapter 369: One Account, Two Fires
Soren and Edra came back together, and Kai knew before either of them spoke that it wasn't going to be a small thing.
"One letter," Soren said. "Not two."
"We've sent separate accounts of the same ground since the day I arrived," Edra said. "Six days ahead of Soren's rider, then four days behind — as if the ground itself cared which fire wrote it down first. It never did. Only the Board cared."
Kai looked between them. "You want to write the Director together."
"One account," Soren said again. "My observations, her crew's observations, Pell's numbers, your carrier readings — one page instead of two competing ones. If the Board wants to argue about what counts as claimed ground, let them argue with a single letter that both camps signed."
"That doesn't answer what the fifth ring wants," Kai said.
"No," Edra agreed. "But it might be the first honest thing we can tell it. Not a Board ruling. Just — we tried deciding something together first."
