The cost does not fall evenly.
It never does.
⸻
At first, it looks like fatigue.
Not collapse.
Not injury.
Just… slowing.
A healer takes longer to rise from her mat.
A sentry forgets a rotation change he’s known by heart for decades.
A young guardian stares at the horizon too long, breathing shallow, eyes unfocused.
Zane notices every one.
He does not call them weak.
He does not pretend it isn’t happening.
⸻
Jason puts numbers to it by midday.
He doesn’t want to.
But he does.
“There are nodes in the lattice that aren’t recovering,” he says quietly, hands shaking as he traces dimmer threads of connection.
“They’re not failing.”
Zane turns slowly.
“Then what?”
Jason swallows.
“They’re… overdrawn.”
⸻
The wolves who cannot pay the cost don’t leave their posts.
They sta
