The transit back toward the Halcyon Span took the better part of nine days aboard the Rustwake, considerably longer than the outward journey to Kestrel's Hollow had required, owing mostly to Corven's insistence on running a wider, more cautious loop around the numbered system's outer belt rather than risking a direct route that might carry them within easy sensor range of whatever still watched over the Ashford Survey Station's silent halls.
"Not taking chances twice in one trip," he'd said, plotting the longer course with the same careful, deliberate precision he'd applied to every decision since the moment they'd fled that pulsing, resonant corridor. "Whatever that thing actually is, I'd rather it forget we exist entirely than remember we're still poking around its general neighbourhood."
