King Felix II and Knight-Captain Rhea were several days into their journey north, relying solely on Rhea's survival expertise and the sparse, non-aesthetic environment for cover. The Serpent's Coil Pass was behind them, and the vast, barren stretch of the Northern Wastelands lay ahead.
Felix, stripped of his gilded armor and using basic, un-dyed cloth for concealment, felt fundamentally incomplete. His internal DF reserves were stable but unused, held in check by the fear of detection.
"Lunio will not track us out here," Rhea said, scanning the horizon. "Their magic is about Purity, not persistence. But Evelyn... she is another matter. She thinks like a system."
Rhea's statement was immediately proven true.
A faint, high-pitched thrum echoed from the south—a sound too precise to be natural. Felix immediately recognized the rhythmic vibration of a highly tuned Flow motor.
Rhea pointed to a speck in the sky: a sleek, black, diamond-shaped drone moving with terrifying speed and autonomy. It didn't rely on visual tracking; it hunted for the subtle, constant signature of high-level Flow usage.
[SYSTEM ALERT: FLOW-STALKER DRONE DETECTED. DF SIGNATURE MATCHES IMPERIUM DEFENSE PATTERN. THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME.]
"Evelyn," Felix hissed. "She didn't believe the 'Shadow' message. She simply sent a tool to eliminate the threat."
The Flow-Stalker Drone was Evelyn's perfect weapon: silent, tireless, and immune to the environment. It only needed one brief, accidental burst of Flow—a high-level ritual, a powerful aesthetic shield, or even Felix's signature Ironic Inversion—to lock onto their location permanently.
"We have to go dark, Your Majesty," Rhea instructed, pulling Felix toward a patch of dead, thorny brush. "No magic, no aesthetics, no high-intensity emotions. We must become entirely un-aesthetic."
For the first time since inheriting the throne, Felix was forced into the Ritual of De-Focus. He had to fight every instinct that screamed to enhance, beautify, or assert his existence with the Flow.
Aesthetic Suppression: He focused on making his appearance as dull, dirty, and asymmetrical as possible, caking mud on his clothes and forcing his posture into a hunched, non-regal slump.
Emotional Stillness: He suppressed all surges of confidence, rage, or artistic inspiration—the very emotions that powered his DF. He had to achieve a spiritual Cringe—a total lack of self-importance or pride.
The Scarf's Purpose: He used the hated Flow-Dampening Scarf (the item Evelyn gave him for the kidnapping) not for protection, but for extreme physical constraint, using its Flow-negating properties to suppress his body's natural emission of residual Flow energy.
The pressure was immense. Every passing shadow, every drop of sweat, felt like it would give off a detectable aesthetic signature.
The drone passed close overhead, its sensors sweeping the desolate ground. It lingered for a terrifying moment, detecting the minute absence of Flow in their area, but ultimately determined they were just non-sentient, non-aesthetic elements of the landscape. The drone sped away, hunting for the bright, loud signature of a King.
The encounter was a stark realization: Felix could not rely on his power. His future success depended on his ability to think and act like a Nomad—a truly un-aesthetic entity.
Rhea, watching him struggle, was grimly impressed. "That was the most un-aesthetic I've ever seen you, Sire. You looked truly miserable."
"I was," Felix admitted, scraping the mud off his face. "But that misery saved us. Evelyn cannot track misery. She only tracks Focus."
They continued their silent, dull journey. The war had begun behind them, dictated by Evelyn's flawless moves. Felix knew the next phase of his survival depended on an alliance with the Nomads, a people who had perfected the art of strategic non-existence. They were two days from the edge of the Wasteland.