Three days passed before the purchasing lists scraped enough stores, leaving the forty-eight-hour plan behind the first refused hauling contract. Hajin kicked open Allen's office door with four days left on the departure clause and no patience remaining for merchants.
Behind the desk, Allen spread the quarantine map while Hajin dropped into a chair, keeping his sling clear.
"Western crags." His finger landed on a marked circle where the survey ended beside the outer ridgeline.
"It appeared four days ago, and our diviners still can't give it a stable Shard rating."
"Four whole days, and nobody can count a single Shard? What the hell stopped them?"
Allen slid a measuring report from beneath the survey and laid its failed readings beside the circle, "Probes vanish into the boundary without a usable echo, and the pressure drops and climbs between checks, enough for the council to quarantine every approach."
