The fourth day began before the lamps were fully extinguished.
Selene called a short meeting in the strategy hall at first light. The final decryption fragments had yielded one additional detail: the northern source had last been confirmed near a set of abandoned mining works two days' ride beyond the third waystation.
The pattern of movement suggested it was not stationary. It was shifting in short, irregular intervals—enough to make a fixed ambush unreliable and a pursuit necessary.
Kaelara took the information without visible reaction and immediately adjusted the secondary routes. Aiden listened, asked two precise questions about the timing of the last confirmed sighting, and then set the new detail into the existing plan. Elizabeth updated the cipher clerks so the northern contacts would receive the revised expectations if the relay stones remained active.
