Three days after Sael's brutal announcement, the newly forged squad convened for their first analysis session. They met in one of the Academic District's smaller, claustrophobic briefing rooms—a tight, windowed space designed for four chairs and a single table, explicitly meant for collaboration rather than lecturing.
When Vane pushed through the door, Valerica was already there.
She had commandeered the table. The zone briefing was meticulously unpacked and spread across the surface—terrain data, threat classification tables, and the notoriously incomplete partial map were arranged in a flawless spatial web. Without scrolling or shuffling a single page, she had laid out the cross-references so the entire puzzle was visible at a glance.
At the edge of the map, perfectly placed out of the way of the documents, sat two steaming cups of tea.
