Lucifer had no sooner returned to the outer observation platform than the lingering sensation of how far down Remu's unstable seat she still had to force remained with him on the next few steps. The unstable one had been stabilized, but the distant drag it had suffered against her authority was still there, like a thin cold current running away from her to places the monitoring lattices could not yet reach.
Aeloria and Nyx were already waiting, the metronome pulse continuing its slow, steady cycle in the background projections and unchanged.
Nyx was the first to speak, her black eyes tracking him as he approached. "You stabilized her."
"Now, only," Lucifer said. "Her seat is fine now, but the pull is still there. Something on the other end is still drawing on the old witch authority through her. If we do not find the source, every new seat inheriting a harvested connection will eventually feel the same strain."
