The world breathed.
It was a single, shuddering, monumental inhalation that began in the heart of the Nexus Spire and rippled out through the Vein Horizon, through the deep currents, through the very bedrock of the planet. The sterile, controlled power the Tribunal had been trying to harvest convulsed, remembering it was alive. It was no longer a resource; it was a will.
On the platform, the chaos was beautiful. It was not the chaos of destruction, but of reclamation. A conduit, meant to channel a predictable stream of energy, suddenly bulged and sprouted crystalline flowers that pulsed with a soft, inner light. A gantry arm, designed for precise movement, twisted into an elegant, organic spiral, like the horn of a great beast. The grey alloy of the Tribunal’s structures began to tarnish
