Chapter 386: What Doesn't Change
Day 33 started the way Day 32 had ended. The sealed letter sat by the cold fire. Two lines waited, finished, in the frost a short walk away. No rider showed on the horizon in either direction.
Kai's pool read ninety-five percent. Ceiling, sixth morning running. He wrote the number down before he let himself think about anything else.
He sat with the book open a while longer than the number needed. Thirty-two days had a weight now that ten days hadn't had. He filed that under: things that get heavier by staying the same, not by changing.
The record-keeper boy arrived with the ledger already balanced on one arm. "Thirty-two days since we made camp," he said. "Checked twice."
"And the hearing count?"
"Soren says one day past his best guess. He also says his best guess was never a promise." The boy turned a fresh page. "He wants that written down too. In case he's wrong later and needs to point at it."
