The terrain changed on the second day.
The commercial road northeast of Ren-Sarath ran for forty kilometres before thinning to a track. After that there was no track. The plateau region had no settlements to route toward, no zone systems to service, no Guild infrastructure to maintain. The ground rose steadily through old growth that had never been cleared, then through open highland where the stone broke through the soil in flat shelves.
Soren catalogued everything. Ambient readings every hour. Geological notes on the stone composition. Path-layer density measurements that showed, by the second day, what he had expected: they were outside every zone's influence. The path-energy ambient had dropped to background levels. The kind of ambient that existed everywhere in the world but meant nothing without a Rift to concentrate and shape it into something zone creatures could use.
It was quiet out here. Clean.
The sovereign seed was not quiet.
