Chapter 263 – What Changes
The walk back west was quieter than any previous return.
Not because the group was silent—they moved and ate and camped the way they always had. But the quality of what he was carrying had changed. Every previous return from a build site had been the carrier moving toward the next thing. The western breach: toward Kael's Seat and the director's data. The Source Points: toward the source contact. The fault: toward the plateau junction. There had always been a next thing pulling west.
Now the pull was different. The function was operational. He was walking back to the world the function connected to.
He'd spent a year becoming the carrier. He was the carrier now. The difference was smaller than he'd expected and larger than he could have imagined before it happened.
The director's instrument readings arrived on the second day of travel.
Not his usual monitoring report format. A personal message.
