The captain called everyone aboard, then stopped when a cargo line slipped loose against the rail. He tightened it and asked the deckhand to pull from the other side. The delay gave Ning time to hand Yan a message schedule written on the back of an old clinic form.
“If the paired mirror gives only static, send a note with the river traders,” she said. “If both routes fail, I’ll assume you’re traveling. I won’t assume you’re in danger just because a message is late.”
Yan studied the dates and committed the first two to memory. “How long before you expect the first one?”
“After you reach the outer port. If the mirror is working, use it then. If not, ask the pilot when the next trader leaves.”
“What if neither route works?”
“Then we wait for the next one. I won’t send someone into a patrol lane just to make a schedule look exact.” Ning watched him fold the form. “You can remember the dates, but keep the paper too.”
He tucked it into his inner coat pocket. “I can do both.”
Gu arrived from the furnace with a final note on the relay symbols. He had compared them with the Orchard scripture and marked three shapes that might correspond to range, return, and attention. The fragment did not show how the method handled several projections at once.
