The crack was still there.
He had half-expected it to be sealed overnight—the Guild's infrastructure team was efficient, and eight metres of cracked pavement in a commercial street was the kind of thing that got addressed before the morning foot traffic. But the crack was still open, and a yellow inspection marker had been placed at each end of it, and the building to the left had a standard Guild notice on the door: Path Activity Assessment — Structural Review Pending.
He stood at the edge of the crack for a moment.
He had walked past buildings with notices like that before. Usually after zone boundary incidents, or after a hunter's path output spiked unexpectedly in a populated area. Routine procedure. Nothing alarming, by itself.
He had never been the reason for one before.
He turned east and walked toward the Division.
