~Caden's POV~
The emergency session runs until well past midnight, and by the time it ends, the northern line has held, but it has held by a narrower margin than Caden likes.
He stands at the head of the table afterward, looking at the map one more time, tracing the three points of the incursion with his eyes the way he has been tracing them all night. Rhys stands beside him, arms crossed, studying the same map.
"They pulled back faster than I expected," Rhys says.
"They weren't trying to break through. They were testing the rotation gaps." Caden taps the easternmost point. "If they'd pushed here instead of spreading across three points, they'd have gotten further. They chose breadth over depth. That tells me something."
"Tells you what?"
"Tells me whoever's planning this isn't think
