The Eastern Reach had been free for exactly forty minutes when three more districts stopped being separate at once.
Canal Row, the Western Terraces, plus the Foundry Quarter all lit up within the same heartbeat, blue lines pulsing in one slow unison count across the whole skyline.
Hajin was still holding the Reach's separated rhythm when the new weight arrived, and his locked note bent under it like a bridge cable taking a third engine.
"Three additional compulsory layers confirmed across the city."
Aria laid the districts across his sight in cold geometry.
"You cannot hold one frequency and lock three more. The technique itself reaches only one target at any given time."
He tried anyway, because trying was the only honest response to the impossible count, and the cost of the attempt arrived immediately.
The Reach's rhythm slipped in the second minute, and the freed bakers who had dropped their spears picked them back up with empty eyes.
