Elara closed her laptop. The Ecuson Model had worked—perfectly, terrifyingly. She looked at her own reflection in the dark screen.
She started small. A lost wallet. A cancelled flight. Leo grumbled but adapted. Erosion phase. Good. ecuson model
Then she escalated. His fiancée left a cryptic note. His bank flagged a fraudulent debt he couldn't explain. His boss fired him for "performance issues" that didn't exist. Crystallization —Leo began to doubt reality. His old self was hardening into useless beliefs. Elara closed her laptop