They set John in the chair. They tied his forearms to the arms of it. They laid the thin copper mesh across his chest and down to his waist and cuffs, then clipped it neat. The mesh did not hurt. It spread his own quiet warmth out until it felt thin and far. When he tried to pull a breath deep enough to use, the mesh felt like a hand smoothing his breath flat.
In his head, a voice he knew spoke the way it always spoke: calm, clean, like a book that had learned to talk.
[System Alert: mana flow disrupted at seven primary nodes; two secondary nodes. Ambient dampening ring detected. Safe re-route path available. Estimated full unlock: six hours, zero minutes.]
He let that sit. He did not fight it. He needed the clock.
