A system near a ridge can still reverse.
A system that tips must accelerate.
The displacement was small.
Barely a fraction of prior oscillations.
But something subtle had changed:
Recovery attempts were weaker.
Not absent.
Weaker.
Maya adjusted the potential landscape one more time.
"The tilt is now persistent," she said.
"Even if small."
Keith stared at the flow matrix.
"Is this exogenous?"
"No," Jasmine answered.
"It's endogenous feedback."
In New York City, volatility-targeting funds reduced exposure after the initial drop.
In London, CTA models crossed trend thresholds.
In Tokyo, leveraged retail positions hit stop-outs.
Each action rational in isolation.
Collectively reinforcing.
Maya derived the local acceleration condition.
"When slope increases," she explained,
"force strengthens."
"And once the system moves beyond the inflection point—"
Keith finished.
"Restoring force becomes driving force."
The inflection threshold mattered.
At that point, curvature flips.
Below it, gravity changes direction.
Jasmine marked the live displacement estimate.
They were near it.
Not through.
Near.
Mid-session, a second wave of selling began.
This time not triggered by a headline.
Triggered by model updates.
Correlation spiked.
Liquidity thinned.
Implied volatility expanded nonlinearly.
In Chicago, dealer gamma turned deeply negative.
In Frankfurt, credit widened preemptively.
In Singapore, systematic funds de-levered ahead of schedule.
The slope steepened.
Maya ran the energy balance again.
Energy was no longer oscillatory.
It was directional.
"Once net energy flow turns positive," she said,
"oscillation ends."
Keith looked at the chart.
Price attempted a rebound.
It failed at a lower high.
That was the signal.
Not the drop.
The failed recovery.
In Hong Kong, futures broke overnight support levels.
In Zurich, defensive allocation outpaced opportunistic buying.
In Washington, D.C., silence finally broke—but reassurance lacked force.
The ridge was behind them now.
Not by much.
But definitively.
Jasmine's state model recalibrated.
Probability mass shifted decisively into the secondary basin.
Barrier height rose behind them.
Reversal would now require energy input of a different magnitude.
Keith exhaled slowly.
"It's committed."
Maya nodded.
"Phase transition complete."
Commitment in nonlinear systems is quiet.
There is no bell.
No announcement.
Just a subtle change in curvature—
Then gravity does the rest.
Chapter 190 does not end in panic.
It ends in inevitability.
The system has crossed the inflection.
Restoring forces have inverted.
Momentum is no longer oscillation.
It is descent.
And descent, once structural,
Requires more than hope to reverse.