The reaction came later.
It always did.
They had barely reached the inner spans when the first wave of weakness moved through her. Not dizziness. Not pain.
A hollowing.
She slowed, then stopped.
Devansh turned immediately.
Her hand lifted instinctively to her chest.
The heaviness was still there.
But something around it felt thinner.
Her breath came shallow.
"Ira," he said.
She shook her head faintly. "I'm all right."
She wasn't.
The space inside her awareness felt overextended, like a muscle held too long under tension.
She tried to take another step.
Her legs gave.
Devansh caught her before she reached the stone.
The contact grounded her, but it did not restore what had slipped.
Her pulse moved too fast.
Her breath refused to deepen.
Rehaan approached, eyes sharp. "What did you do?"
"I leaned," she whispered.
The effort of speaking cost her more than it should have.
Devansh supported her weight fully now. He felt it clearly — the absence.
Something that had once buffered her internal balance had thinned.
"She altered a foundational agreement," he said. "The city did not simply respond. It recalibrated."
Rehaan's jaw tightened. "And she paid the difference."
They brought her to the Hall of Still Waters.
The moment her back touched the cool stone, her breath stuttered. A quiet tremor moved through her ribs.
Meera hovered close, eyes wide. "What's happening to her?"
Ira closed her eyes.
"I can't… feel the edges as clearly," she whispered. "It's like… something that used to hold me… moved."
Devansh knelt beside her.
"What held you?" he asked.
She searched the sensation.
"The part of me that stayed separate," she said softly. "The part that let me step back."
Silence followed.
Rehaan exhaled slowly. "That's not a small thing."
"No," Devansh agreed.
He looked down at her, something new and unsteady moving through him.
"You didn't only change the city," he said quietly. "You let it change you."
Her lashes fluttered.
"I think… it's the same thing," she murmured.
Her breathing slowly steadied.
But the hollowness did not fill.
It remained.
Not empty.
Exposed.