Hope held seven hostile entities frozen for approximately forty-five seconds before her legs gave out and she collapsed, which was—I mean she'd just spent fifteen minutes healing a massive dimensional rift and then immediately froze seven attackers while exhausted so honestly forty-five seconds was impressive but watching my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter pass out from magical overexertion was nightmare fuel I didn't need.
"Hope!" I had her before she hit the ground and the freeze dropped with her consciousness, seven entities unfreezing into immediate containment because the response team had used those forty-five seconds to deploy every ward and binding we had.
"She's breathing." Morgana appeared with medical equipment. "Pulse elevated but steady. This is exhaustion not seizure. She just—she pushed past her limits and her body shut down to prevent damage."
Body shut down to prevent damage. Right. Self-protective magical exhaustion instead of catastrophic overload.
