Chapter 309: Damage
Repair was not the same as construction.
Kai understood this before he descended. He had turned it over during the morning rest — not sleep, the rest that came from lying still with closed eyes while the pool climbed back toward full. Construction was finding fresh material and establishing a fixed point inside it. Repair was something different: finding a point that already existed and reopening the pathway between it and the entity that had withdrawn.
The anchors were still there. Physically in the rock. The carrier function's point-match grip had not released — it was the entity side that had gone quiet, not his side.
What he needed to do was hold each anchor contact open and wait.
Whether the entity came back toward it was not something he could force.
He went down at the eighth hour of Day Five, pool at full.
Anchor Three first.
