The terrain shifted back toward compressed highland rock on day nine.
The alluvial basin gave way to the same character of geology that had produced the first entity's Rift—hard, dense, the substrate's path-energy concentrated vertically rather than conducting laterally. The formation-layer passive read changed quality with the geology the way it had changed throughout the eastern survey: different rock, different read. The substrate here was older than the alluvial basin and deeper in its compression.
The northeast entity's presence grew stronger with each day.
