Chapter 922: Found It

Liam crouched and pulled the Eldervale map from storage.

"If both of you are finished," he said, laying it across a flat root and weighting one corner with a stone, "I need your thoughts before we move."

Celia looked down at the map, then back at Asher for a fraction of a second. Her face returned to control, but now the control looked more deliberate.

Liam noticed.

She had started the morning already on poor ground with him. He had not been angry about it because anger required more investment than her prejudice deserved, but calm did not mean forgetfulness. Now she had put herself on Asher’s bad side as well, and Asher’s bad side did not have manners or patience to soften it. Celia seemed intelligent enough to realize that. Whether she was disciplined enough to adapt was the question.

Liam pointed to their current position. "We are close to the western forest line. Based on the task wording, the anchor should be somewhere in this section."

Asher crouched opposite him, eyes scanning the markings with more focus than he usually showed when no one was actively trying to kill him.

Liam continued, "The academy may not place it exactly on the forest line. There is a strong chance it is deeper into the western forest, close enough to match the wording, far enough to waste time if we search too literally."

Celia leaned closer, keeping a careful distance from Raven, who settled nearby and watched her as if waiting for a reason. "Or it may be exactly where the task said it is."

Liam looked at her.

Her voice was calm, not challenging for the sake of defiance this time. "You are assuming complication because it is the academy. That may be correct. But task wording can also be direct when the difficulty is meant to come from the area around the objective rather than the wording itself. The anchor may be placed at the line, with the threat positioned to complicate access."

Asher glanced at Liam as if expecting him to snap back.

Liam did not.

Celia had made a valid point.

Her prejudice was irritating. Her mind was still useful.

"True," Liam said. "It may be exactly where described. Maybe the academy is simply trying to punish people like me for having no trust in them."

Celia blinked once, as if she had not expected agreement, much less dry self-awareness attached to it.

Asher snorted. "They would need more than one task for that."

"They have thirteen more days."

"That is your problem."

"Unfortunately, you are standing near it."

Asher tapped the map with two fingers. "We check both possibilities quickly. Nearly an hour is gone already."

"Yes," Liam said. "That is why we decide likely points before moving. The northern collapsed road is not directly north from here, and it is farther from this position than Veyrhold was from the western forest line. Wasting time now hurts the whole route."

The three of them leaned closer over the map.

For the next five minutes, personal dislike became less important than terrain.

Liam spoke first, marking three possible zones with small bits of broken twig. One rested at the actual western boundary where an old trail thinned into a deer path and the forest line bent inward. Another sat deeper in the woods near a cluster of stones that could hide an anchor without burying it. The third lay close to a shallow dip in the terrain where Myst-heavy mist might gather in the early hours, making visibility worse and approach routes narrower. The academy liked pressure points. Those were pressure points.

Asher cared less about the anchor’s hiding logic and more about reaching it without getting trapped. He pointed out where the trees opened enough for fast movement and where the ground would turn into a mess if they had to fight. He rejected one of Liam’s suggested paths because it ran between dense trunks and a low ridge that could funnel them if something charged from the side. Liam adjusted the route because Asher was right, though he did not say it aloud. He did not need to reward basic usefulness with ceremony.

Celia focused differently. She looked at terrain structure and the likely stability needed for an academy survey anchor to function. "It would need to remain detectable to the task system and stable enough not to shift if the ground distorts," she said, tracing a small curve on the map without touching Liam’s markings. "Not buried in deep root clusters unless the anchor is designed to pierce them. Not too close to running water if the flow disrupts Myst readings. Somewhere exposed enough to connect, concealed enough to be defended by the area."

"You are assuming survey function," Liam said.

"It is called a survey anchor."

"Names can lie."

"Not always."

"Fair."

She tapped near the second twig. "This stone cluster is likely. If the stones hold stable Myst saturation, the anchor could be placed among them and still read the area. The line itself remains possible. The mist dip is more likely if the academy wanted detection to be difficult rather than activation."

Asher clicked his tongue. "So we check three."

"Yes," Liam said. "Controlled split. Short range."

Celia looked at him. "How far?"

"Far enough to search quickly. Not far enough to become stupid."

"That is not a measurement."

"It is a rule."

He placed the final three markers. "Asher takes the open trail toward the forest bend. I take the stone cluster. Celia takes the mist dip with Raven."

Raven’s gaze shifted toward him, displeased but accepting the instruction.

Liam continued, "Communication insignias remain active. If you find the anchor or detect a threat, report immediately. If the threat is minor, handle it. If it cannot be handled fast, call the closest person and double-team it. If that still is not enough, we regroup completely or go full force. The goal is speed, not heroics."

Asher looked offended by the distinction. "Heroics can be fast."

"Not when idiots use the word."

"I am not an idiot."

"I did not name you."

"You implied it."

"You volunteered."

Celia rose from her crouch before the exchange could continue. "If Raven and I find the anchor first, do you want us to wait before activating it?"

"Yes," Liam said. "Report first. We need to know what is around it."

She nodded once.

Liam folded the map and stored it. The forest around them seemed quieter now that they had stopped moving long enough to hear it properly. Leaves shifted above. Insects clicked somewhere under dead wood. Far behind them, barely within Liam’s awareness, the hunting party continued along Smoke’s guided route. Ahead, the western forest deepened in three different directions, each one plausible, each one capable of hiding either an anchor or something waiting around it.

They split without ceremony.

Asher moved first, cutting toward the more open trail with fast, aggressive steps that promised violence to anything foolish enough to block him. Celia mounted Raven again with obvious reluctance. Raven endured it like a punishment and launched low through the trees, wings half-spread as she carried Celia toward the mist dip. Liam turned toward the stone cluster and entered the denser section of forest alone.

The trees closed around him quickly.

Light thinned beneath the canopy. The ground grew uneven, roots layered over old stone and patches of dark soil. Liam moved without rushing now, every step placed with care, his senses stretching ahead without opening too many channels at once. Shadow Sight would help if the anchor was hidden in darkness, but he did not activate it fully yet. First, the ordinary signs. Broken twigs. Disturbed ground. Wrong silence. Movement where wind did not reach. The academy’s anchors might be magical objects, but anything placed in a living forest left consequences.

Minutes passed.

Then his communication insignia warmed faintly.

Celia’s voice came through quieter than before. "I have a signature."

Liam stopped moving.

A heartbeat later, Asher’s reply followed, edged with alertness. "Is it the anchor?"

There was a pause.

"Maybe," Celia said.

Before she continued, Raven’s low growl bled through the link.

Then Celia spoke again.

"But something is circling it."