My Analysis

Clean and straightforward solve today. My opener locked in the Y at the end and cleared plenty of consonants, which made the vowels do the heavy lifting. A follow-up with E and A confirmed the pattern, and the core R-E-A quickly showed itself. Dropping in L as the pivot gave me R-E-L-A-_ which practically begged for the word to finish with LAY. From there, it was all about confirming no oddball traps were in play before hitting the answer: RELAY. Simple and efficient.

Have a spectacular Saturday. Until tomorrow, may your day be bright and your mind stay sharp. ✨