Yin Lie had always known how to endure pain.
That was never the problem.
Pain announced itself.
Pain demanded attention.
Pain could be fought, redirected, burned through.
This was different.
This was what happened after he chose not to move.
When the Body Notices the Lie
It began quietly.
A tremor in his left hand that didn't stop when he willed it to.
A pressure behind his eyes, dull and spreading, like heat trapped beneath bone.
He inhaled slowly.
Held it.
Exhaled.
The drift inside him stayed stable.
Too stable.
Kai noticed his posture change before he spoke.
"You're locking yourself too tight," she said.
"I'm fine," Yin Lie replied.
His voice sounded normal.
His body disagreed.
Stillness Is Not Neutral
Waiting wasn't rest.
It was containment without release.
Every instinct inside him—wolf, ice, Keystone—was built to act, to respond, to resolve tension by changing the world.
Now he was forcing that tension inward.
The city wasn't pressing him anymore.
He was pressing himself.
A sharp pain lanced through his chest, stealing his breath for half a second. He didn't gasp. He swallowed it down and straightened.
Kai swore under her breath.
"That's not nothing."
He nodded once.
"I know."
The Drift Pushes Back
The drift didn't like being told to wait.
It had accepted containment because it believed it was temporary—because action always followed.
Now, time stretched.
The internal balance began to tilt.
Not toward explosion.
Toward compression.
His vision blurred briefly, the edges of the corridor doubling before snapping back into place.
He clenched his jaw.
"…Don't," he muttered—to himself, to the drift, to the instinct screaming for release.
Across the City, She Holds
Somewhere else, Qin Mian remained still.
Yin Lie felt it—not as relief, but as responsibility.
She was holding because he was holding.
That thought cut deeper than pain.
"If I break," he realized,
"I break the thing keeping her steady."
The pressure in his chest intensified.
His heartbeat went uneven.
Kai stepped closer. "Lie. This is turning into self-harm."
He didn't argue.
The Price of Not Acting
His knees weakened suddenly.
Just for a moment.
He caught himself against the wall, palm slapping concrete hard enough to sting.
The drift surged in response—angry, sharp, demanding to be used.
He forced it back down.
The backlash hit immediately.
A wave of nausea rolled through him, vision dimming, sound dropping away as if he were underwater.
"…Okay," he whispered.
"That's new."
Kai grabbed his arm, steadying him.
"You're destabilizing internally," she said.
"This is the opposite of recovery."
He laughed weakly.
"I know."
What Waiting Takes From Him
He straightened again, slower now.
His hands shook openly.
Every breath felt heavy, like it had to pass through resistance before reaching his lungs.
"This is the cost," he said quietly.
"Of not letting it out."
Kai stared at him. "How long can you keep this up?"
He didn't answer immediately.
He focused—past the pain, past the drift—on the resonance.
It was still there.
Thin.
Holding.
"…Long enough," he said.
The City Misses This Too
Systems above detected nothing unusual.
No spikes.
No breaches.
Internal degradation didn't register as a threat.
Yin Lie wasn't breaking rules.
He was paying for following them too closely.
A Dangerous Equation
Kai released his arm reluctantly.
"You know what happens if you collapse like this," she said.
"Yes," he replied.
"You won't just fall," she continued.
"You'll snap."
He nodded.
"And if I move," he said,
"she breaks first."
Silence stretched between them.
There was no good answer.
Still Holding
Yin Lie leaned back against the wall, breathing shallow but controlled.
The pain didn't recede.
It settled.
Like something waiting its turn.
Across the city, Qin Mian stayed patient, unaware of the exact shape of the cost he was paying—only that the resonance still held.
Yin Lie closed his eyes.
Just a little longer, he told himself.
Don't let this be where it ends.
The city waited.
So did he.
And somewhere deep inside him, the drift began to calculate a different solution—one that did not involve waiting forever.