The hunter came back because the mark had not gone away.
He waited while Juno finished comparing two earlier records, then held out his display with the weary care of someone returning a tool he had been told was working normally. The market assignment was complete. The reward had registered. The faint joining stroke beside the quest remained where he had first noticed it.
“It does that with some equipment updates,” he said. “Leaves a sign until the next refresh.”
“Has it refreshed?” Juno asked.
“Twice.”
“Show me the time of the last one.”
Eli moved a chair so the hunter could sit without putting his back to the street. Juno had arranged her comparison equipment where people could reach it without being directed through a private shelter area. That made the work easier to interrupt and harder to mistake for a summons. It also meant every argument from outside arrived at the table as noise.
A cart driver wanted the coalition to certify that the market warning had been necessary. A resident wanted to know whether a new instruction to report to a defense post was genuine. Juno answered neither question from the mark in front of her. Sera referred the resident to the local responders and asked the driver which loss he needed recorded.
