"It Always Starts With Someone Walking the Wrong Way."
It started with a bucket of radish guts and someone putting it in the wrong compost pile. Which wouldn't normally mean anything. People make mistakes. Buckets get heavy. Labels fall off.
But yeah, I have been here long enough to know where this is going.
So when I saw the man angle toward the "burn-off only" pit and toss half a bucket of wet vegetable mess into the ash channel, I paused.
Then I kept watching.
He didn't look nervous. Didn't flinch. Just moved on like nothing had happened. Which meant he wasn't clueless. He wanted it to look normal.
Too normal.
I stayed behind the half-built grain cover and noted his steps. He moved like someone who'd practiced how not to draw attention.
"See something?" Embergleam asked from behind me, voice soft.
I nodded, slow. "He's not from here."
"He dumped radish into ash."
"So you noticed too."
I swear this isn't paranoia!