He closed it and kept walking.
The encounter had confirmed two things. Crane was actively monitoring him now, checking the mana signature personally rather than relying on the formation's detection layer alone. And Crane's read on him was twelve days out of date.
Mist fell into step beside him. The three tails moved in the slow thoughtful rhythm that he'd learned meant the fox was processing.
"He'll check again," Mist said.
"Before the trial," Orion agreed. "Probably multiple times."
"Each time he'll read the same signature," Mist said. "He'll conclude the mechanism is still functional. He'll trigger the nullification expecting a discharge." The amber eyes were forward. "And when the discharge doesn't happen he'll have approximately three seconds before he understands why."
"Three seconds is enough," Orion said.
