The Observer crossed five kilometers in twenty minutes.
Not rushing. The deliberate pace of something that had decided and was implementing the decision with the same care it had used to maintain nine-point-seven kilometers for eight weeks. Each kilometer covered with intention. Each meter a choice.
Kael stood at the Ashwater crossing and watched it come through the World Threat Response — the classification updated to Evaluator, the threat level stubbornly unassigned, the signature quality different from the Seeker, different from the Ironhaven Traveler, different from anything in his ability's reference framework.
"Lira," he said.
"I've never seen one," she said. "In thirty-one years. I've heard them described in the pre-System texts — the oldest ones, the ones Calder's references barely touch." She paused. "The old frameworks called them Assessors. The ones who come after the others to see what was done with what was found."
