Chapter 302: The Interval

The attendant started Shuli’s semifinal from the first signal.

Ren watched fourteen plant-bodied entrants spread out from staging. Four went to each lower objective while six remained between them, close enough to reinforce either approach. Her opponent took the upper marker, then sent three of its heavier entrants down toward the nearer boundary.

The first attack pushed Shuli’s defenders back across the bank. One stumbled under a blow, and another caught it before it fell. The boundary became contested as the attackers advanced.

Four replacements were already approaching from the other side.

They entered before the original defenders withdrew. The attackers kept pushing, but each time they forced one small body back, another occupied the ground beside it. Shuli’s first group escaped through the gap behind the replacements, leaving them to maintain the contest.

Ren ran the approach again. The relief group had begun moving while the first four still held their positions, before any of them stumbled.

They were not winning the fight outright. The fresh entrants gave ground too, and one of those relieved rested with a dragging limb held clear of the ground. But the attackers had yet to clear the boundary, and Shuli still held the other lower objective.

Late in the round, the opposing squad changed its attack. The three withdrew toward the junction as the two above left their marker to join them. Together they turned toward Shuli’s other position, leaving the first lower boundary uncontested behind them.

Shuli’s reserve split. Four started toward the empty upper marker. The remaining pair went to the outside of the threatened lower approach, ahead of the four defenders waiting within its boundary.

Ren followed both movements. The opposing squad was still descending when the four reached upper. Below, the screening pair occupied the narrow turn before the objective line, making the attackers stop and clear them rather than run straight onto the bank.

One was shoved aside. The other backed toward its waiting defenders, keeping in the approach as the heavier entrants tried to pass. The final signal sounded before the first attacker crossed the boundary.

Three uncontested objectives to none.

Ren checked the finish against the earlier change of direction. Shuli had taken upper late, during the attempt to concentrate against her second position. Her screening pair had delayed that attack just long enough to preserve the result.

He marked the relief movement in his notes, then headed home.

— • —

The squad had returned through the gate by the time Ren reached the cove. Wake floated alongside the rock shelf, with Eira and the craftsperson finishing the unloading. Orun and Sethe kept the approach clear behind them.

The Glassfire held one hand against the cradle while Eira released Keep from its seat. It kept the frame steady until Keep was clear, then let go and loosened the carrier straps.

"The padding stayed in place," it said as Ren came down to the shelf.

"Good. I watched it through the turns."

Eira carried Keep to the flat stone. Tarin and Bolt waited in the shallows, and Vesper stood nearby with Mistwhisker beside her.

"Anything I couldn’t see?" Ren asked.

"The fold hid Tarin from us on the way down. We could hear the water, but we couldn’t see where it had reached until we cleared the turn." Vesper glanced toward the shore. "The east holder came back at the line twice after we forced it out. Nobody’s reported an injury."

"How’s Bolt?"

"Tired. It was working that entrance with Wake the whole time."

Ren nodded. "We’ll check it before it rests. You held east well."

"Your warning gave us time to stay together."

She went to help Eira while Ren steadied the empty frame for the craftsperson. They lifted it from Wake’s back and set it on the shelf. Once the straps were clear, the whale moved away through the cove’s deeper channel.

Ren watched until the rock at the mouth hid it from view.

"They’re swimming with it again, Ren."

Kaia’s voice reached him as he gathered the loose strap from the water’s edge. He laid it across the cradle and went down to Bolt.

— • —

Ren had the jetmaw turn both ways in the sheltered water, then make a short run across the cove. Its healed flank moved freely through each turn. When it returned, he asked for two jets into open water, with the approach cleared behind it.

Eira watched from the stone, then examined the old wound when Bolt came alongside.

"No stiffness or pulling," she said. "It needs rest, but the flank is sound."

Ren let Bolt settle in the shallows while she recorded the examination. He had seen it hold west under pressure; whether it belonged in the final would depend on the task still to be announced.

— • —

The Nightfire’s stone was going out through the northern landing when Ren reached it.

Cut blocks waited on the finished section, and the haulers moved them down to the water in pairs. The craftsperson had returned from the cove and stood beside the loading point, watching where their feet met the new joints.

Ren stopped while a block passed. The haulers could set it down beside the water and adjust their grip on level stone before loading, instead of balancing it on the uneven shore. Behind them, the next pair brought another block forward.

The craftsperson checked the edge after the load cleared, then waved them through.

Orun and Sethe had joined the work after leaving the cove. Ren called them over when they set down their block.

"The families on this shore still need warmer water. Before the next supply run, I want the sheltered stretch farther along checked. Below the surface too, and the way down from the shore."

Orun looked toward the remaining stone.

"Sethe, finish the loading here. Orun, check the water and come back with the location and what access they would need. If it isn’t suitable, tell me."

"Before the next run," Orun said.

Sethe indicated the blocks still waiting. "I’ll get these away first."

Ren left them dividing the remaining work and made his way back to campus.

— • —

Yueying met him at the hall and took him to the same quiet room they had used before. Once they were seated, she opened two inventory copies on her slate.

"I found a difference in the attribution."

She enlarged the relevant lines and placed them one above the other. The older inventory listed a seal-office receipt against the item. The later copy used the same reference but credited another department.

Ren checked the item descriptions before looking at the dates.

"These are versions of the same entry?"

"Yes. I checked the surrounding references as well. They agree."

"So the attribution changed somewhere between these copies."

"Or was corrected. I haven’t found the record explaining it." She indicated the later date. "This tells us it was recorded differently by then. It doesn’t give us the day somebody changed the line."

Ren read the two departmental entries again. The refusal she had brought before gave them no way to follow the accession record. Now there was a specific difference to ask about, with dated copies supporting the question.

"Could the item have been transferred?"

"It could. The older entry could also be wrong. I’ve kept both copies with the details of where I obtained them."

"Ask for the transfer record or the correction, whichever they say it was. Keep the answer with these."

"Through the archive?"

"The same request channel. Give them both references."

Yueying noted that beneath the copies. Ren waited while she checked the dates once more, then they returned to the hall.

— • —

Sol was reading Shuli’s declaration at the boards.

He looked up when Ren stopped beside him.

"Did you get the recording?"

"I watched it before going home."

Sol indicated the entries on the sheet. "She sends the next pair before the defenders need relief. The replacement is already on its way when someone has to come out."

"I ran that part again," Ren said. "They started moving before the first group lost its footing."

"She’s practiced the change. It shows at the entrance."

Ren looked at the roles listed beside the names. He had watched the replacement group enter through a gap the withdrawing defenders kept clear. The timing involved both groups, including the one under pressure.

"I’ll look at their exit as well."

Sol nodded and stepped aside as an attendant brought the final’s notice to the board.

Ren waited for the sheet to be secured, then read the terms from the top.

A broad delta, with six supply sites connected by land routes, shallow tributaries and a navigable main channel. Eight marked tokens at each site, forty-eight in total, with no replenishment. Each squad had a receiving point within its protected staging area.

The routes and depths were shown beneath the objective. Ren followed the main channel past the sites, then turned back to the scoring rule.

Only tokens delivered to his squad’s collection point would count.