Chapter 35 - The Tribulation Chose Everyone
The tribulation was not mine.
That was the problem.
Heaven marked everyone who stood beside me.
Red symbols appeared above Mira.
Jace.
Fen.
Sable.
Even Pebble.
[Collective Deviance detected.]
[Correction authorized.]
Mira stared at the sky.
"It is going to kill the whole mountain."
The system offered one clean solution.
[Sever party bonds.]
[Tribulation will return to host only.]
I almost selected yes.
Then I looked at the wording.
Party bonds.
Not friendship.
Not contracts.
System-defined links.
"Everyone close your interfaces if you have one," I said.
Jace frowned. "What interface?"
"Lucky you."
I terminated Sable's growth-sharing contract.
Not our bond.
Mira broke the seal link between us.
Pebble bit the little blue party icon floating near my shoulder.
The tribulation symbols flickered.
Half vanished.
Heaven had been using system metadata to identify my allies.
Fen laughed.
"You found the leash."
The sky struck anyway.
First bolt.
Second.
Third.
I absorbed what I could.
Redirected what I could not.
Then the seventh bolt turned toward Mira.
She pushed me away.
"This one is mine."
The lightning hit her directly.
She fell.
May you like
And did not get up.
