Chapter 388: What the Rim Held
Day 35 started before Kai reached the ring. Pell was already there when he arrived, kneeling in the same spot as the morning before, string still loose, still unused.
"It closed," she said, before he'd finished crouching. "Sometime in the night."
The cold had sharpened again overnight, the kind that made breath visible before the sun cleared the ridge. Frost had crept past the water barrels this time, dusting the tent ropes and the flattened grass around the fire rings. Someone had already banked both fires higher than usual without being told to. Nobody complained about the extra wood.
He read his pool first, out of habit more than need. Ninety-five percent. He wrote it down, then looked at what she meant.
