Greta at the Camp Behind Them

After Moo Moo Market, the road kept asking for small decisions.

The wagon had fuel, but not enough to make anyone relaxed. The road was rough, the day was already long, and the party had chosen secrecy over an easy resupply. Maine, Ash, and Jonah continued north anyway, trying to keep the auto wagon quiet and uninteresting enough to avoid more Lawful attention.

They passed an empty-looking camp first.

A fire burned. Meat cooked slowly above it. Three tents stood nearby, but no one answered when the party called. Nothing looked wrong enough to demand a stop, and nothing looked safe enough to invite one. They kept moving.

Then came the bridge.

Ash studied it with the confidence of someone who understood balance through stone, pressure, and faith in things not falling over. It was wide enough for the wagon. It might hold. It probably held. That was enough for the road they were on.

The wagon crossed.

Farther ahead, they found a high lookout and climbed it to see what waited north. Ash spotted another road stop in the distance, the kind of place that might have supplies, fuel, trouble, or all three.

Then he looked back.

Someone had returned to the camp.

At first it was only a figure near the fire. Then Ash recognized her: Dr. Greta Wunsch, dressed for travel and camping, sitting in the same roadside space they had decided not to investigate.

Stormcall was supposed to be the next clear mission.

Instead, before the city even fully began, the road had placed VQU's strangest power scholar behind them like a question they had already driven past.