A good news arrived the next day.
Lucien had barely finished reviewing the latest reports from the Echo Crucible when a priority message from the void expedition appeared before him.
One of the Creation-trace locators had reacted.
This time, the readings satisfied every condition they had established from the previous Bark of the Tree of Creation.
Lucien was already standing before he finished reading the report.
The expedition member had transmitted the world's location together with the stable reference information necessary for Lucien to reach it.
That was enough.
The Covenant of Pathless Sovereignty responded.
Space folded.
•••
Lucien emerged in the deep void with his senses already spread around him.
The distant world floated ahead.
It was so small compared with the Big World and almost completely dark from the outside. No artificial lights marked civilizations along its surface, and no formations surrounded it.
