Not immediately. Not in ways that are immediately obvious. But measurably, progressively, in ways that don't reverse."
"Understood," Jolthar said.
"Do you?" Haryntha asked, and the question wasn't rhetorical.
"Yes," Jolthar said and meant it.
He lay there for another moment, honest with himself about what he'd heard and what it meant for how he conducted himself going forward.
Then he sat up slowly, the channels she'd described making their roughness known through the movement.
"Caelum is waiting for me," he said.
"He has been for several hours," Haryntha confirmed.
"Patiently. Which tells you something about him."
*
Caelum was sitting outside the tent on a low formation of corrupted rock that had been cleared and made functional, looking out at the suppressed field around the camp where the absence of nynthralls was still notable enough to feel like its own kind of presence.
Jolthar sat across from him.
