clean up edits and chapter 15 done, 16 in draft

characters/devod-fields.md

@@ -118,8 +118,8 @@ During a frontier clearance gone wrong, Devod took charge of a deteriorating sit
 | Charlette Fields | Ex-wife | Divorced. She weaponized custody — ultimatum forced Devod to choose between contact and proximity. He chose proximity. She controls Mere through Thresholds ownership, income, schedule, and layered rules. |
 | Phelan Varrant | Introduced Ch12 (Phelan visits alone) | Devod tests Phelan's connection to Mere through detailed questions (Pre-Compact section, shelf reorganisation). Confirms "partner." Opens up about Charlette because he trusts the one person connected to Mere who might change things. Professional relationship forged through the case. Proves essential — mine knowledge, Layer 3 conceptual breakthrough. |
 | Ned Floundry | Co-worker / friend | Delivery routes intersected with Ned's trade inspection duties at warehouses and shipping points. Became friends. Ned confided in Devod about Compact irregularities. Ned told his family: "Talk to Devod if anything happens to me." |
-| Brennan Toor | Old Pathfinder comrade | Served together in the Pathfinders. Now holds a senior position in a mercenary guild. Calls Devod "Wolf." Visits during Book 2 recovery arc when he hears through the network that an old Pathfinder got hurt. Treats Devod with the ease of someone who's seen the same things. Seeds the old-timer network for Book 3. |
-| *Old-timer network* | Former Pathfinder contacts | Scattered across mercenary guilds in senior positions. 25+ years of accumulated contacts from Pathfinder service. Brennan Toor is the visible representative; others are seeded for Book 3 payoff. |
+| Brennan Toor | Old Pathfinder comrade | Served together in the Pathfinders. Now holds a senior position in a mercenary guild. Calls Devod "Wolf." Visits during Book 2 recovery arc when he hears through The Cairns that an old Pathfinder got hurt. Treats Devod with the ease of someone who's seen the same things. Seeds The Cairns for Book 3. |
+| *The Cairns* | Former Pathfinder network | **Official internal name for the old-timer network.** Named after the stone trail markers Pathfinders built in hostile territory to guide those who followed — each old-timer is a cairn, a fixed point in the landscape marking safe passage. Scattered across mercenary guilds in senior positions. 25+ years of accumulated contacts from Pathfinder service. Brennan Toor is the visible representative; others are seeded for Book 3 payoff. Ledger has access to The Cairns through his own Pathfinder service (different unit, different era) — this is how Brennan received guild-level intel (Phelan's alias "the Locksmith") alongside the news about Devod. Phelan does NOT learn the name "The Cairns" in Book 2. |
 | Ledger | Knows of Devod by reputation only | Ledger served in a different Pathfinder unit (different era/region). Knows *of* "the Wolf" by reputation — they never served together. Devod doesn't know Ledger personally. Ledger's reaction to the name "Devod Fields" in Book 2 (Ch 11-12 crisis response) is subtly off because he maps the name to more than "Mere's delivery-driver father." This is a Pathfinder slow-burn seed — no character names the connection in Book 2. |
 
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characters/ledger.md

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@
 Ledger served in the Pathfinders — **different unit than Devod, different era or region.** He knows *of* "the Wolf" by reputation but they never served together. Devod doesn't know Ledger personally.
 
 ### What the Pathfinder Past Explains
-- **The intelligence network** is old Pathfinder comrades repurposed into an information web — this is how a "desk analyst" has contacts in the warrens and across Drenwick's underworld
+- **The intelligence network** is old Pathfinder comrades repurposed into an information web — internally known as **The Cairns** (named after the stone trail markers Pathfinders built in hostile territory). This is how a "desk analyst" has contacts in the warrens and across Drenwick's underworld. Ledger used The Cairns to relay guild-level intel (including Phelan's alias "the Locksmith") to Brennan Toor when Devod was attacked — this is the Ch 15 anomaly Phelan notices but can't resolve
 - **Combat readiness** (throwing knives, threat assessment) is Pathfinder training, not surprising bureaucrat capability
 - **Phelan's "most dangerous person in the room" read was accurate** — the bureaucrat mask IS the disguise
 - **The Carter link** (anonymous client management in Book 1) fits Pathfinder asset-running tradecraft