Chapter 130: The Exploratory Guild
The blue-humming moss on Kieran's frontier stone became a symbol. Not of a problem solved, but of a question beautifully asked. His letters, which transitioned from defensive justification to rapturous field notes, circulated through the network. They described not just the moss, but the delicate, six-legged "wind-spiders" that wove their webs only in the audible draft between two specific rocks, and the way the groundwater in that region seemed to taste of distant, unknown minerals after a moonrise.
For the older generation, it was a revelation of a different sort. They had spent their lives defending, healing, and stabilizing. The concept of exploration for its own sake not driven by threat or lack, but by pure, generous curiosity was a new melody in their symphony of purpose.
