"And what does it cost me," Satou said.
Cael looked at him.
"Nothing yet," he said. "You're telling him, by your routine, that his presence doesn't change the calculation. Which is either bravado or truth."
"Which does Caldris think it is," Satou said.
"I don't know," Cael said. "He's too good at this to assume it's bravado." He paused. "He'll be writing it in his journal. The thing he writes when something doesn't fit the model."
Satou looked at the gate.
At the ordinary forest beyond it.
'He's in there,' he thought. 'Looking at this. Writing in his journal about the gap he found, about the demon lord who doesn't react to being observed, about the settlement that looks exactly like the intelligence file and somehow still doesn't fit.'
'Good,' he thought. 'Keep writing.'
=-----
Day one.
