Chapter 11: The Inventory of Impossible Things

The fellowship argued for most of the morning, which suited me perfectly.

Not because the argument was illuminating — it was largely not — but because an argument creates a kind of weather that people move through without watching their feet, and I have always done my best thinking in the gap between what people say and what they remember to conceal. While Dara demanded that Cassian lock down the perimeter and Cassian explained, with controlled patience, that a locked perimeter was of limited use against a threat that was no longer present, and Aldric suggested twice, very reasonably, that the priority was the route forward, I walked the campsite in small, methodical circles and looked at the ground.

The ground, in my experience, is considerably more honest than people.