Back at the Blackwood estate, the atmosphere in the master suite had shifted from a place of healing to a chamber of absolute, psychic compression. It felt as though the very walls were bowing inward, crushed by an invisible vacuum that originated hundreds of miles away in the Whisper-Wind valley. The air was thick and static-charged, tasting of copper and cold ash.
Within Leela's chest, the Elemental Stone was no longer a beautiful galaxy of swirling colors. The "mud" had transitioned into a dense, oily sludge—a churning, opaque gray that seemed to absorb the ambient light of the room. Every time she drew a jagged breath, the stone emitted a dull, sickly pulse that threw long, distorted shadows across the silk wallpaper, making the room feel like it was underwater.
Leela's movements wer
