The wind over the courtyard no longer felt like wind.It felt like pressure.Like the world itself was tightening around the old house, as if something inside it had finally been acknowledged—and reality was now trying to correct its mistake.Alika stood frozen at the doorway, her fingers gripping the wooden frame so tightly her knuckles turned pale. Her breath came unevenly, caught between disbelief and fear she could not fully name.In front of her, the courtyard had become something else entirely.Emery stood motionless in the center.Small.Still.But the air around him refused to behave normally. It bent slightly, like space itself was struggling to stay intact near him.Lazriel stood several meters away, no longer pushing forward, no longer retreating either. His eyes were locked forward, but his expression had shifted into something quieter—something more guarded.And between them…the old man stood like a dividing line between catastrophes.His cane was pressed into the cracke
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