LYSSARA
Eight days had passed, the way the days before a significant thing always passed faster than the days before them and slower than she needed them to be, and with the specific texture of time that moved differently when you were aware of it moving.
Tomorrow is the challenge protocol meeting.
Tonight, the last ordinary night before whatever came next required everything she had built.
Kaevra's final pre-meeting briefing was efficient in the specific way that Kaevra was efficient, no unnecessary words, no reassurance that was not also information, the complete picture delivered in the order that made its architecture most legible and then concluded without dwelling on the conclusion because dwelling on conclusions was what you did when you were uncertain about them and she was not
