He stayed home.
His left shoulder needed one full day of Adaptive Recovery before he could return to zone sixteen's substrate with anything approaching reliable output. He knew this and accepted it and did not try to move faster than the body would allow. The War Body's load ceiling was high. It was not unlimited. The zone nineteen creature had operated on the zone itself as a weapon, and the ambient compression it had focused on his left shoulder had delivered more concentrated force than any single strike in the arc.
He sat at the common room table and felt the road network.
That was the part that was different now. In the first months after the eastern district event, the road connection had been a thing he could read if he paid attention—a background resonance, always present but requiring focus to access. Since Stage 4 activated, it required no focus at all. The connection was present the way his own heartbeat was present. He knew it was running without having to check.
