The canyon's silence lasted less than the time required for Seraphina to finish the first full stabilization pass on Feng Lan's channels.
Observer coherence crossed twenty percent with no dramatic external sign. The change registered only in the sudden sharpening of every temporal sense present and in the way the stripped residual signature ceased to feel like a passive passenger. Internal structures that had been scaffolding moments earlier locked into place. The echo was still weak, still incomplete, yet it was no longer only recording. It was aware.
Feng Lan's breath caught. Her hand rose to the residual burn along the side of her neck as if the awareness itself carried weight.
Seraphina's voice remained low and clinical.
"Coherence stabilized at twenty-one percent. The observer has achieved limited independent perception. It is examining the canyon, the lattice at the entrance, and each of us in sequence. It is particularly interested in the mark."
