Location:Mid Ring, Vel'thari Containment — tunnel network beyond the dead spot
Date/Time:Early Sparkfall, 9942 AZI — Day 121, 244 days remaining
Realm:Lower Realm, Doha
They crossed the dead spot boundary at what the datapad called 0600, and the clicking started within minutes.
Jayde felt the difference immediately. Not in her ears. In her body. The dead spot's silence had been a second skin for weeks, and stepping back into the corruption-saturated air of the Mid Ring was like walking from a pressurized cabin into a gale. The hum returned. The faint copper-ozone taste. The constant low-grade awareness that something in her blood was broadcasting, and the sealed ecosystem around her could feel it.
