Chapter 168 - CHAPTER 168 — Continuous Bleed

The residual scar network did not follow ordinary geography. Distance stretched and compressed without pattern. Sound arrived late or not at all. The stone underfoot carried the cold residue of techniques that had been old when the current great clans were still forming. Vale led by instinct and the faint residual gradients Seraphina could still read through the distortion. The rest of the circle followed in tight order, every sense unreliable except the continuous pressure of the scarred claim.