He had been thinking about the unknown source since they set camp.
Not with dread. Dread was for things that had no shape yet. This problem had a shape—he could feel the boundaries of it even if the interior was still unread. Something below Dragon Mode's maximum depth, drawing pressure toward a single point. That was specific. Specific was workable.
The question is what it is. You can't solve something you've only read as 'not any category I have.'
He went back to the depression at dawn.
Alone, which was not a decision he announced because it didn't need announcing. The group understood the operational geometry of what he was doing. Soren had looked up from his notes when Kai stood, done a fast assessment of the equipment readings from the previous day, and gone back to his notes. That was Soren's way of saying: understood, continue.
