The night passed without notice.
I spent most of it seated at the table near the window, sheets of paper spread out before me, marking points of failure and inefficiency in my own system. The Transcendent mastery memories hadn't added anything new to my arsenal, but they had done something far more troublesome, they had shown me where I was being sloppy.
I adjusted how my domain rested around me, not fully manifested, not withdrawn either. A quiet presence. A pressure that no longer pressed outward unless I allowed it. I worked on letting my laws sit inside that space instead of hovering at the edge of my awareness, reinforcing the connections again and again until the strain eased. By the time I stopped, the sky beyond the windows had shifted to a faint blue of morning.
I took a cold bath, letting the chill wash away the last of the fatigue, dressed simply, and stepped outside.
The guest residence garden was already alive.
