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The Silent Expansion The desert did not signal the upcoming change. It simply ceased to act as Narala had expected.Caravans that once traveled the Incense Road with confidence now paused at junctions longer than before.Escort leaders noted strange symbols on stones, slight changes in trail directions, and water stops that did not match old maps.Nothing was openly hostile.Nothing burned.Nothing vanished.And that was even more concerning.Because uncertainty replaced the certainty of loss. Harith first noticed the change in the data Malik shared with him. It was not about losses.It was about deviations.Minor changes in timing.Slight changes in the paths of convoys.Unexpected stops at wells that were not part of any recognized system.Kassim read the same reports and frowned."They are spreading into our network." Harith corrected him. "No.Our network is already inside theirs." That distinction was important. Because it meant the boundary was no longer clear.The Incense Road had stopped being two separate systems competing