The suspension field trembled.
Lindarion felt it first, not as a vibration in the air or a sound in the stone, but as a fine, hairline stress along his thoughts, like glass warming too quickly. The inheritance strained where it wrapped Kaelthrix, not because the architect was pushing outward, but because the prison beneath them had begun to wake something that did not appreciate uncertainty.
'This is what it meant,' Lindarion realized, breath slow, controlled despite the pressure creeping up his spine. 'Not escalation. Exposure.'
Kaelthrix knelt within the stabilizing shell, its form flickering as overlapping containment rules competed for dominance. Cracks crawled across its armor, sealing and reopening in irregular patterns, molten light pulsing like a diseased heartbeat. It did not struggle. It simply watched Lindarion with unnerving patience, as though waiting for a conclusion it already understood.
