By morning, Death Flag #09 stopped being a summons.
That was how I knew we had survived the wrong part.
The Ledger opened while Ren's emergency protective hold was being copied across six departments, two service routes, one healer archive, and Valeria's personal "in case everyone becomes stupid" vault.
[Death Flag #09: Valdrake Summons]
[Status: MUTATING]
The room understood the word before anyone explained it.
Mutation meant the enemy had learned.
A normal Death Flag was a blade on a table. Ugly. Dangerous. Countable. This was different. This was a blade discovering doors, paperwork, public notices, and the soft places between people who had begun trusting each other.
The summons had wanted me alone.
The mutation wanted to make togetherness look criminal.
That was smarter.
I hated smart enemies.
I hated more that the Ledger sounded almost impressed.
The word sat there like a tumor learning grammar.
Wonderful.
