Hana's shawl freaked out—threads twitching, light going cold. She wrestled it down like it owed her money.
"Eyes up," she hissed. "Stay sharp. It's trying to crawl inside your head."
"Noted," I said, and didn't look, and felt it anyway.
The System nudged my vision with a line of calm text like this was an email:
[Warning: Illusion-Class Hostile — The Grief-Singer (A+ → S- Threat)]
[Recommendation: Anchor stability, auditory dampeners, emotional tether]
"Emotional tether?" I said. "Wow, System, maybe buy me dinner first."
Jax spat blood into the canal, which hissed, because of course it did. "We going across?"
"In a minute," I said. "We just killed a general. I'm taking my level-up like a responsible adult."
I opened the panel because pretending to be normal about these things helps keep you that way.
[Status — Ethan Cross]
Level: 23
HP: 200 / 200
MP: 0 / 0
Strength: 80
Agility: 77
Endurance: 43
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 7
Luck: ???
Stat Points Available: +25
