Day two started quietly, which nobody trusted.
The gates kept venting, but the volume dropped. No coordinated pushes. No surprises. For six straight hours the Gutwrack Span fought the same steady grind it had started with, and every single person holding a position felt the wrongness of it.
"They've stopped adapting," Maya said at the thirtieth hour. "Since the eighth gate collapsed, nothing's adjusted to anything we've done."
"Maybe we hurt it," Noah said.
"Maybe it's busy," Marcus said.
Rudra looked up at that. "Busy with what?"
Marcus didn't have an answer. That was the part that bothered him.
The answer arrived at the thirty-fourth hour, and it came from Veruhn.
The Ashfall Basin captain reached the Gutwrack Span on foot, alone, having crossed forty miles of contested ground to deliver something he clearly didn't trust to any link.
Jian met him at the perimeter and brought him straight to the center.
