Chapter 198: Exploring the Wreck
He forced himself to turn away.
"Mark it," he said.
Veska looked at him with unexpected approval.
"That is how people live longer than their curiosity."
A harvester drove a warning stake into the ground and tied a red-black charm to it. Maerin recorded the location on her route plate. The expedition moved on.
Rohan did not look back.
Only then did he let out the breath he had been holding.
Liora still walked beside him.
"You did the right thing," she said.
"I hate that."
"I know."
"I really hate that."
"I know."
This time, the repetition was not cryptic. It was gentle. She understood because she had seen his face, because she knew what that word meant to him, and because she knew the Ash sometimes used the best parts of people as bait.
They reached the southern salvage mark near dusk.
It was not part of the central wreck field, but it was close enough that Rohan could feel old metal beneath the ash through the soles of his boots. The site consisted of a partially exposed hull plate cracked open along one edge, revealing layers of insulation, conduits, and dark cavities where smaller components had once been housed.
The harvesters became excited.
Carefully excited.
"There may be intact heat-thread," one whispered.
"Or old battery glass," another said.
"Or hull rot that eats through gloves," Veska added.
The excitement dimmed.
Maerin established a perimeter. Shield hands outward. Archers on the rise. Veska and the harvesters at the plate. Rohan was assigned to assist with ash clearing, under strict instruction not to pour
Molten Assimilation into unknown ship material.
"I was not going to," he said.
Maerin looked at him.
"I was considering it," he admitted.
"That is why I said it."
He helped clear ash from the exposed edge.
The work was slow. The ash had compacted over years, perhaps decades, forming layers almost like sediment. Normal tools scraped away the loose drift first, then the harvesters used narrow picks to remove denser material near the hull. Rohan used Molten Assimilation only on the ash itself, loosening it from stone and drawing it aside in controlled sheets.
It was delicate work.
Surprisingly satisfying.
The ash responded better now than it had months ago. He could feel differences in its texture, not with perfect clarity, but enough to separate old compacted drift from newer windfall. He did not command it like magic. He negotiated with it through the properties his Molten Attribute understood: heat, dryness, residue, mineral memory, combustion, weight.
At one point, he uncovered a section of writing on the hull plate.
The old letters were scratched and faded, but the translation effect caught them after a moment.
EMERGENCY ACCESS — DECK CARGO SPINE 7
Rohan stared.
His heart began beating faster.
Cargo spine.
Access.
He looked toward Maerin.
She was watching him already.
"What did you find?"
"Writing. It says emergency access, deck cargo spine seven."
The harvesters went quiet.
Maerin came over and crouched beside the exposed letters. She traced the air above them without touching the metal.
"I have not seen this marking exposed before."
"Does the crash ledger mention cargo spine seven?"
"Not in records I have read."
Rohan’s mind raced.
Cargo meant storage. Storage meant manifests. Supplies. Maybe equipment. Maybe old data modules. Maybe nothing. Maybe death.
Still, this was not a voice in a dark corridor. This was an exposed marking on the southern debris edge, within the expedition perimeter.
A real discovery.
The Great System appeared.
[Quest Update: Expedition of Ash and Silver]
[Optional Objective Discovered: Investigate Cargo Spine 7 Access Marking]
[Potential Rewards: Salvage Information, Passage Leverage]
[Risk: Unknown]
Rohan read the words twice.
Optional.
Risk unknown.
Maerin saw his face change.
"What does your system say?"
Rohan told her.
Every word.
He expected her to refuse immediately.
Instead, Maerin stood and looked across the salvage site, then toward the darkening sky. Her jaw tightened as she considered.
Liora came closer, concern clear on her face.
"You are thinking about it," she said to Maerin.
"I am thinking about whether thinking about it is already foolish."
Veska hobbled over, staff tapping. "The sky will hold for another hour. After that, the lower wind turns. I do not like being near old metal when the wind turns."
One of the harvesters, a woman named Tavin, adjusted her gloves nervously.
"If this is a cargo spine access point, there could be sealed salvage beneath the ash. Not central wreck deep. Outer cargo. It might still be dangerous, but it might also be reachable."
Maerin looked at her. "Reachable and safe are not the same."
"No," Tavin admitted. "But if the access marking is true, this section may have broken away before the worst of the central impact. It could contain intact compartments."
Rohan said nothing.
He did not want to push too hard. Not after promising. Not with Maerin’s father hanging unspoken between them and the wreck field.
But his entire body felt pulled toward the marking.
Liora noticed.
"You should say what you are thinking," she said.
Rohan looked at her.
She gave him a small, tense smile.
"Not because we will obey your curiosity. Because hiding it will make you worse at pretending you are not thinking it."
Fair.
Rohan turned to Maerin.
"I think this is the first real chance I have seen at information that did not come filtered through the merchants or half-broken records. I know it could be nothing. I know it could be dangerous. I know the wreck field has killed people, including your father. But this is not me chasing a voice into the dark. This is a marked access point on the route we already came to salvage. If we can investigate it with a controlled plan, even briefly, it might matter."
Maerin’s expression remained hard.
But her eyes were not dismissive.
"What would controlled mean to you?"
Rohan exhaled.
"No one enters a compartment today unless we can see inside clearly. We expose only the access edge. We test for bad air, charge, unstable ash, and movement. If anything responds strangely, we mark it and leave. If there is a removable panel or external cache, we recover what can be reached without entering. If opening it takes longer than the safe weather window, we stop."
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