Broken things.
Holding the world together.
"Two more sessions," I said. "We bring it to ninety. Then ninety-five. The higher we push it, the longer the containment lasts."
"The containment is already self-sustaining at eighty-six percent," Nihil said. "Additional sessions are insurance, not necessity. The entity on the Sealed Floor is contained. The wards will hold for decades."
"Then we do two more for insurance."
"Agreed. But the system should know—" A pause. The particular pause that Nihil produced when accessing deep memory. "—the subject should know that the containment at this level will produce a secondary effect."
"Which is?"
"The wards, at founding-era specifications and above, generate a passive field that extends through the leyline network. This field has a stabilizing effect on the ambient Aether throughout the Eastern Spires. Cultivation within the field becomes more efficient. Energy conversion becomes cleaner. The environment itself becomes — healthier."
