The river heart answered the borrowed tempo for six hours, and then it answered nothing at all.
The seizure returned at midday with reinforcements, plus this time the heart brought the north rift with it, both fronts flaring on the same failing clock.
"The river threat has exceeded what one holder can stabilize at five Rings," Aria reported over the spray. "The heart is fighting your tempo with its whole body now, not its habit."
Juna stood on the bank with four Wings open against the spray, feeding her solar rhythm into the stabilization from outside.
Even the feed could see the cost climbing on her.
"Five Rings is not enough to hold this," she said, not as a complaint but as weather. "And six would barely be, plus six is everything you own."
Which was the sentence the whole week had been building toward, plus everyone on both fronts heard it arrive.
