The cold wind blowing from the northern steppes carried the smell of sulfur and burning pine through Elyaran’s stone arches. In the Great Council Hall, Azhred stood wrapped in his silver-embroidered cloak, his hand resting on the hilt of his curved steel sword. Around him, the tribal chiefs raised goblets of fermented mare’s milk, cheering to celebrate the province’s liberation.
In their eyes, Azhred was a radiant sun; a noble warrior who had broken the Imperial siege.
In the shadowed alcove behind the marble columns, Tair sat.
He did not join the drinking. His right leg, bound with heavy reinforced braces, lay motionless beneath the dark wooden table. The paralysis had spread past his thigh to his groin, leaving the entire lower half of his body completely numb. Beside him, his right arm lay lifeless in a black silk sling. As a reminder of the fire in Kaşrûn, every shallow breath he took burned his throat like swallowed shards of glass.
Tair opened the tax ledger before him. The system reflection violently flickered before his left eye; it appeared not with its usual emerald glow, but with jagged, blood-red lines of corruption.
System Diagnostics: ASTRA
WARNING: SYSTEM GLITCH 'ORUN-KHAR' DETECTED.
NEURAL CORE: Overloaded.
RISK OF DESYNCHRONIZATION: 34%. System adapting.
System Warning: The use of the "Orun-Khar" glitch privilege is overloading the neural core. Risk of synchronization loss is at 34%.
System Adaptation: The system has begun tightening its own rules against Tair’s interventions and cycle deviations.
Physical Cost: Keeping the glitch active is directly accelerating neural destruction in Tair’s paralyzed tissues.