"Yes," Rhys said. "They're trying to live inside it."
Caria frowned. "And you can't live inside a pause."
"No," he agreed. "You pass through it—or it passes through you."
Below them, the caravan finally turned away, wheels cutting new ruts into an already tired road. They would tell themselves they were being prudent. They would not say what they feared: that choosing wrong would leave a mark no waiting could erase.
The reckoning did not recoil from that fear.
It let it stand.
That was what made it intolerable to some.
Days later, the first open misuse arrived—not as doctrine, but as example. A regional council announced a "deliberative freeze," suspending all enforcement actions indefinitely in the name of restraint. They cited the plateau in careful language, praised hesitation as wisdom, and congratulated themselves on avoiding harm.
