Commitment alters trajectory.
Cascades alter speed.
The descent did not begin with panic.
It began with synchronization.
In New York City, systematic funds reduced exposure at the same volatility threshold.
In London, macro desks cut risk as correlations breached internal limits.
In Tokyo, margin compression triggered forced liquidations.
Different actors.
Identical response windows.
Maya reframed the model again.
"Once committed," she said,
"local dynamics are no longer sufficient."
She wrote the contagion term.
Each node influenced by its own gradient—
And the displacement of others.
Keith studied it.
"So coupling strength matters more than local curvature."
"Yes."
"And coupling just spiked."
Cross-asset beta converged toward one.
Credit tracked equity.
Rates followed credit.
FX amplified both.
In Chicago, dealer hedging accelerated mechanically as spot moved.
In Frankfurt, ETF redemption baskets transmitted pressure directly into constituents.
In Singapore, global macro portfolios de-risked across regions simultaneously.
The network was no longer loosely connected.
It was tightly coupled.
Jasmine computed effective amplification.
"The largest eigenvalue," she said quietly.
"If it exceeds one—"
Keith nodded.
"Shocks grow."
They didn't need the full matrix.
Empirically, amplification was evident.
A modest move now propagated twice as far before encountering resistance.
Liquidity metrics confirmed it.
Order book depth halved.
Spread widened.
Slippage increased nonlinearly.
Maya sketched the cascade condition.
Not oscillation.
Iteration.
Each step larger than the last.
The next selling wave was not discretionary.
It was collateral-driven.
Volatility rose.
Value-at-Risk breached.
Leverage reduced.
Price fell further.
Feedback loop complete.
In Hong Kong, futures locked limit-down briefly before reopening.
In Zurich, structured notes hit knock-in barriers.
In Washington, D.C., emergency meetings convened quietly.
No announcement yet.
But coordination signals were forming.
Maya watched energy dissipation.
There was almost none.
Losses were not being absorbed—
They were being transmitted.
Keith finally said what all three were thinking.
"It's no longer about the basin."
"No," Maya replied.
"It's about the network."
Cascades differ from crashes.
A crash is sudden.
A cascade is mechanical.
Predictable in structure.
Unpredictable in endpoint.
Jasmine recalculated systemic stability.
Probability of reversal without external intervention:
Low.
Probability of continued amplification:
High.
Probability of spontaneous stabilization:
Dependent on coupling reduction.
No sign of it yet.
The final hour approached.
Volume surged.
Not chaotic.
Programmatic.
Aligned.
Chapter 191 does not end with exhaustion.
It ends with propagation.
The descent is no longer driven by slope alone.
It is driven by connectivity.
And when networks amplify instead of absorb—
Momentum ceases to be momentum.
It becomes multiplication.