Chapter 292: First Fragment
The morning was cold.
Kai sat at the gorge edge, notebook open on his knee, and did not write anything.
The camp was mostly packed. The equipment cases were sealed. Soren had already inventoried everything twice and was now waiting with the patience of a man who had long practice waiting for Kai to finish whatever was happening inside before indicating he was ready to move.
Mira was ten meters back, the vault pair shells held loosely in both hands. Not reading. Resting them.
The system notification from the day before was still showing when he surfaced this morning — the same standing mission it had been displaying since the archive activated.
He opened his notebook and wrote without preamble:
The mission is absorb the first fragment. I have not absorbed it. The archive is directly below. I am standing at the surface preparing to walk west.
He read this back.
Then he wrote:
This is the wrong order.
