Seret unrolled the quarry map beneath the command wagon's awning while four daggers pinned its corners against the snapping wind. Hajin squeezed opposite him among the squad leaders, hands clear of the parchment, eyes hunting the route past the quarry.
Helen dropped a whistle beside the marked road that ran east toward the quarry itself.
"Containment comes first," the captain began, dragging one finger along the quarry's outer slope, "we secure a threshold, map whatever the scouts couldn't reach, and keep this breach from opening toward the capital."
His finger slid past the surveyed ground into blank passages, where Kenny's confused account left almost nothing to follow.
Hajin ignored the inked skull and squinted at those empty edges instead.
'A drawn skull tells me less than a road that quits right before the trouble starts.'
"Core extraction comes second."
