Marvin didn't respond immediately.
The windows remained open around him, each one showing a different path unfolding somewhere within the House. Movement. Decisions. Progress.
None of them paused.
None of them knew they were being seen.
Except him.
He looked away from the windows and back at the figure.
"You said imbalance attracts correction," Marvin said. "That implies something maintains it."
The figure didn't deny it.
"Yes."
"Not the House."
"No."
Marvin's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then what?"
The figure studied him for a moment.
Then answered.
"Those who can still adjust it."
Not watchers.
Not residuals.
Active.
Marvin absorbed that.
"And they respond to… what?" he asked.
"To deviation," the figure replied. "To paths that no longer align with the intended flow."
Marvin glanced briefly at the keys in his hands.
Then back.
"And I qualify."
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No ambiguity.
Marvin exhaled once.
"Because I didn't simplify."
"Because you didn't," the figure said. "And because you carry more than one direction."
Marvin didn't look at the windows again.
He didn't need to.
"What do they do?" he asked.
The figure paused.
Not long.
But enough to mark the answer.
"They reduce variables."
Marvin understood.
Not eliminate.
Reduce.
Bring things back into alignment.
Simplify.
Like placing the key.
But imposed.
Not chosen.
Silence stretched between them.
Then—
A shift.
Not in the figure.
Not in the room.
In one of the windows.
Marvin's attention moved there instinctively.
The image had changed.
The corridor inside it—once stable—was now distorting. The person within it had stopped, clearly aware that something was wrong.
The walls tightened.
The path narrowed.
The options reduced.
Correction.
Marvin's gaze sharpened.
"That's happening now."
"Yes."
"To them."
"Yes."
Marvin looked back at the figure.
"And it will happen to me."
"Yes."
No warning.
No urgency.
Just certainty.
Marvin adjusted his grip on the keys.
Then asked:
"Can it be avoided?"
The figure didn't answer immediately.
Then:
"No."
Marvin nodded once.
"Then it can be managed."
A pause.
The figure tilted its head slightly.
"Yes."
That was enough.
Marvin turned slightly, scanning the chamber again.
The windows.
The paths.
The intersections.
Then—
He moved.
Not toward the windows.
Toward the far side of the chamber.
A new opening had formed.
Not a door.
Not yet.
Just a space that hadn't been there before.
The figure didn't stop him.
Didn't guide him.
But as Marvin passed—
"Understanding changes nothing," the figure said.
Marvin didn't slow.
"It changes response," he replied.
The figure watched him.
Said nothing more.
Marvin stepped into the forming passage.
Behind him, the windows began to close.
One by one.
Until only one remained.
The one showing him.
Then it, too—
Closed.