"He wants to use me to reshape the world," Alex said.
[He wants to use you to reshape it into something he controls,] System confirmed.
[The sanctuary, the alliances, the family you've built—these are threats to him not because they represent military power. They represent a Bearer who reached the threshold freely, with genuine alliances, with the ability to choose how to use what the threshold offers.]
"He needs me before I choose," Alex said. "Before I understand what I'm choosing."
[Yes.]
Alex looked down at the pouch at his hip. Seven stones, seven elements, seven months of surviving impossible things. The constant hum that had become so familiar he'd stopped hearing it.
"How long do I have?" he asked. "Before the threshold activates on its own? Before he makes his next move?"
