Awake does not mean endless.
That is the lesson no one wants to learn.
The watchers begin to feel it first.
Not as fear.
Not as doubt.
As weight.
Attention, sustained without pause, does something subtle to the body. To the mind. To the spirit. It sharpens perception at first, makes patterns clearer, connections faster.
Then it drains.
Irena misses a market day for the first time in years and does not notice until evening. Tomas forgets to eat through an entire cycle of meetings and only realizes when his hands start to shake. A younger watcher snaps at a child for interrupting her notes and freezes afterward, horrified at herself.
They are still awake.
They are just… thinning.
The shadow coils, low and wary.
Vigilance without rest becomes erosion.
The world, ironically, is do
