The reaction wasn’t immediate.
It built.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like something that was no longer operating on certainty.
Emily felt it.
A shift.
The system was no longer confident.
“…It’s confused,” she said quietly.
Kael’s eyes sharpened. “Good.”
Theodore’s shadows moved subtly.
“Not for long.”
The grid pulsed again.
But now—
It was uneven.
Unstable.
The lines flickered.
The room itself felt… uncertain.
Emily’s core pulsed in sync with it.
“…It’s reacting to me differently now,” she said.
Kael nodded slightly.
“Yes.”
Theodore spoke quietly.
“You forced it to adapt.”
Emily frowned. “…That’s not good, is it?”
“No,” he said.
“It is not.”
The grid surged again.
But this time—
It didn’t press inward.
It expanded unpredictably.
Across the room.
Emily tensed.
“…Okay
