Ythera noticed it first, three days after the whole family crossed into peak Calamity-9, a faint wrongness she couldn't quite name until Malzareth felt it too.
"Something's off with the new arrivals in Dranvok's ranks," she said, coiled beside the fire with a stillness that had nothing to do with rest. "Six new Calamity-9 Tamers, all recently stationed near the capital. Their signatures don't sit right."
'Suppressed,' Malzareth rumbled. 'I know that particular flavor of dishonesty well. Power folded down small enough to hide inside a smaller cage.'
Max confirmed it within the hour, voice clipped and urgent over the bond. [Max: You're right. We just identified the same pattern in Levetron and Celestshade both. Demi-God rank Tamers, stats suppressed down to Calamity-9 exactly. Every single pillar's quietly reinforcing with power they're not supposed to have access to in this layer at all.]
"How many total," John asked.
