It started small. so small I almost didn’t notice. a flicker. a shift. a moment wrong. the memory of the first time I saw him blurred. not gone. not erased. altered. my breath caught. because that wasn’t possible. that wasn’t allowed.“You cannot stabilize inconsistency,” the presence said. dalm. certain. because to it this was correction. not destruction. not control. alignment.“No.” the word came out sharp. Immediate. because that wasn’t just a memory. that was mine. the space twisted. hard. because now it wasn’t attacking the present. It was reaching backward. Into what had already happened. Into what I had already felt. Into what defined me.Zayden’s grip tightened. hard. because he felt it too. the shift. the distortion. the way something was trying to rewrite us.“Aria hold onto it,” he said. urgently. because now this wasn’t just resistance. this was defense. I closed my eyes. not to block it out. but to focus. because I could feel it slipping. the details. the edges. the cert
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