The forest didn’t move.
It paused like a thought refusing to become action.
Denise felt that difference in her bones.
Something had changed out there—not in strength, but in intent.
She looked at Liam. “They’re focusing on you now.”
Liam didn’t deny it.
His eyes stayed locked on the segmented arcs in the forest.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
Denise frowned. “That’s bad, isn’t it?”
A short pause.
Then Liam answered:
“It depends on what they decide I am to remove.”
Denise swallowed. “That sounds like you’re speaking about yourself like you’re expendable.”
Liam’s expression tightened slightly.
“I’m not,” he said.
But the way he said it didn’t sound like comfort.
It sounded like calculation.
Below, the constructed figure shifted again.
It didn’t step forward this time.
Instead, it
