The offer does not arrive as a voice.
It arrives as clarity.
⸻
Jason is the first to realize it is happening.
Not because something changes.
Because suddenly… nothing hurts.
The constant background strain vanishes. The ache of recalibration, the subtle mental fatigue of maintaining awareness, the low-level pressure of a world still learning to breathe—all of it simply stops.
He blinks.
Once.
Twice.
“Oh no,” he whispers.
Zane looks up sharply from where he sits beside the heir.
“What.”
Jason presses a hand to his chest, heart pounding.
“It took the weight,” he says.
“All of it. Temporarily.”
⸻
Across Blood Moon, the same sensation ripples outward.
Guardians straighten in surprise.
Elders breathe deeper than they have in weeks.
The land smooths into effortless equilibrium
