Ashbound did not arrive in the outer ring.
That was the first thing Jason noticed.
He had half-expected signs uniformed scouts, marked cloaks, the subtle reshaping of space that happened when a large guild decided to involve itself. Ashbound was not small. Even people who had never seen its members up close knew that much. When guilds like that moved, the city usually felt it.
This time, nothing changed.
The route still creaked under weight. The temporary reinforcements still held only because people treated them carefully. The same locals showed up in the morning, bringing tools they barely trusted and energy they couldn't replenish easily.
Ashbound was aware.
And Ashbound was still.
Jason learned this not from rumors, but from absence.
He worked the route again that morning, slower than before, letting others take more of the burden. His body protested anyway. The strain had not reset overnight; it had merely settled, redistributing itself into joints and muscle memory.
He stopped when he needed to stop. Sat when he needed to sit.
People noticed.
"You alright?" one of the locals asked, hovering awkwardly with a length of rope in his hands.
"I'm walking," Jason replied.
The man nodded, satisfied by that answer in the way people were when they didn't want to press too hard. He moved away, returning to work with a little less urgency than before.
Jason leaned against a low wall and closed his eyes briefly.
The system nudged him.
He didn't check.
He already knew what it would say.
By midday, the name was everywhere.
Not spoken loudly. Not announced. Just threaded through conversations like something everyone had already agreed upon.
"Ashbound's watching."
"Ashbound won't take it."
"If Ashbound steps in, they'll control the route."
Jason heard it at the edge of the market, from a merchant who pretended not to be listening. He heard it near the wall, from a guard who kept glancing toward the outer road as if expecting something to appear there unprompted.
He heard it most clearly when he stopped hearing alternatives.
No one talked about other guilds anymore.
It was Ashbound or nothing.
That narrowed things.
Jason returned to the inn earlier than usual, fatigue dragging at him in a way that made even walking feel deliberate. Charlotte was there again, seated near the window, this time with parchment spread in front of her. She looked up as he approached, eyes scanning him in the way she had learned to do quickly, efficiently.
"You're favoring your left side," she said.
Jason sat opposite her without comment. "Didn't realize I was being examined."
"You weren't," Charlotte replied. "You were noticed."
He snorted softly. "That's worse."
She didn't disagree.
They sat in silence for a few moments, the usual rhythm settling between them. Charlotte folded the parchment neatly and set it aside.
"Ashbound won't intervene," she said.
Jason's jaw tightened slightly. "You're certain."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Charlotte met his gaze. "Because if they do, they inherit the problem. Not just the route the people tied to it. The expectations. The losses."
Jason leaned back in his chair. "That's leadership."
"That's restraint," she corrected. "Leadership comes later."
He considered that. "So they wait."
"They calculate," Charlotte said. "There's a difference."
Jason glanced toward the window, watching dust drift through sunlight. "And if the route collapses before they decide?"
Charlotte's voice stayed level. "Then Ashbound's choice remains clean."
Jason looked back at her. "And the people?"
"They pay the cost," she said quietly.
He didn't respond.
Charlotte watched him for a moment longer than usual. "You don't like that answer."
"No," Jason said. "I understand it."
"That doesn't make it easier," she replied.
"No."
Mira passed by their table, slowing just enough to add, "If Ashbound hasn't moved by now, they won't without reason."
Jason looked up. "You know them?"
"I've seen them work," Mira said. "They don't rush. They don't rescue. They decide."
"And when they decide?" Jason asked.
Mira's expression hardened slightly. "They don't reverse it."
That settled something in Jason's chest.
The collapse happened in the afternoon.
Not the whole route just a section near the edge where stress had been building quietly for days. Stone gave way with a sound like a sigh, followed by the sharper crack of something final.
Jason heard it before anyone screamed.
He ran.
Dust clouded the air, thick enough to sting his eyes. People shouted, voices overlapping in confusion and panic. Jason pushed through, ignoring the protests of his body as he reached the broken section.
Two people were down.
One was already dead.
The other a woman he recognized from the mornione was trapped beneath a slab of stone, blood soaking into the dirt beneath her.
Jason dropped to his knees without hesitation.
"Don't move," he said, though she couldn't have if she wanted to.
He braced himself and pushed.
Pain flared immediately, sharp and insistent, tearing through his arms and shoulders. The stone shifted a fraction, then stopped.
Jason gritted his teeth and pushed again.
The system surged into his awareness, no longer a nudge but a pressure.
He ignored it.
Someone shouted for help. Another person tried to pull him back.
"Get a lever," Jason snapped. "Now."
They scrambled.
Jason held the weight, muscles screaming as seconds stretched too long. The stone trembled as someone wedged a beam beneath it. Another person pushed alongside him.
Together, they lifted just enough.
The woman screamed as she was dragged free.
Jason collapsed backward, vision blurring at the edges.
For a moment, he couldn't breathe.
Hands steadied him. Water splashed onto his face. Someone spoke his name, though he didn't register who.
When the world sharpened again, he was lying on his back, staring at the sky.
The system asserted itself fully this time.
Condition: Compromised
Vitality: 12
Strength: 9
Agility: 10
Perception: 11
Recovery: Halted
Jason stared.
Compromised.
That was new.
He laughed weakly, then coughed as pain flared through his ribs.
"So that's the line," he muttered.
Someone hauled him upright. He waved them off, unsteady but standing.
The woman he'd helped was being carried away. Alive. Barely.
The dead man lay covered nearby, already becoming a fact instead of a person.
Jason turned away.
By evening, the outer ring was quieter than Jason had ever seen it.
Not calm.
Subdued.
He walked back to the inn slowly, each step measured. Charlotte was waiting near the door when he arrived.
She took one look at him and stopped.
"You crossed it," she said.
Jason nodded once. "Looks like it."
She didn't scold him. Didn't ask why.
"Ashbound will move now," Charlotte said.
Jason leaned against the wall, breathing carefully. "Because I did?"
"No," she replied. "Because the cost changed."
He closed his eyes.
Somewhere in the city, Ashbound's leadership would be recalculating. Loss had been added to the ledger. Risk reevaluated.
Jason had forced the equation.
And for the first time, he understood something clearly:
Ashbound did not move for people.
It moved for thresholds.
Jason opened his eyes, pain settling deep and real.
He had just become one.