The silence that followed did not feel like relief. It felt like something holding its breath.
The Deep Border did not calm—it tightened.
An invisible pressure began to descend, slow at first, almost unnoticeable, like a shift in atmosphere before a storm. But within seconds, it grew heavier, denser, until the very air seemed to resist movement. The fractured terrain beneath their feet groaned faintly, cracks stretching deeper into the ground as though the world itself were being forced to endure something far beyond its limits.
Liora felt it before anyone spoke.
Her body stilled instinctively, every sense sharpening at once as a cold awareness settled into her chest. This wasn't like the distortion they had just faced. That had been violent, reactive, driven by instinct.
This—
Was deliberate.
It wasn't lashing out.
It was watching.
