Night settled over the Oasis of Grain, and at the same moment, the land became flat and open in every direction.
Settlement lights marked the horizon like scattered embers against the grey.
The air was cooler than it had been, and Alistair recognized the kind of temperature shift that meant the dry season was ending, though he couldn't tell from the sky because the sky looked the same regardless of the season.
His scan ran its passive circuit.
He tracked settlement signatures to the north and patrol patterns from what remained of Ironveil's scattered forces to the west.
It was the familiar geography of a region he'd been reading for weeks, and it returned the same patchwork of readings it always returned.
Then something appeared at the edge of his range.
It wasn't suppressed or hidden, but simply absent in a way that had shape.
