Chapter 382: What Counts
Day 29 opened quiet, the fire already low from a night nobody had fed properly.
Kai's pool sat at ninety-five percent, the overnight ceiling. He noted it, then noted the empty space where the two letters had sat the morning before. The table looked strange without them.
The camp moved slower than it had the day before. Sending days had their own rhythm. The day after had none yet, and everyone seemed to be waiting to be told what kind of day this was going to be.
Pell was already out at the fifth ring when Kai passed. She was coiling her timing cord, checking the frost's edges the way she checked them every morning, out of habit more than expectation.
"Anything different overnight?" Kai asked.
"Line's the same. Brightness is the same." She glanced up. "I keep checking anyway. Feels wrong not to."
"That's most of this standoff," Kai said. "Checking things that don't change, in case the one morning you don't check is the morning they do."
