The breakthrough to the fifth Ring kept Hajin thoroughly drained across three full days, though ordinary sleep gradually restored his concentration.
Vella described the phenomenon as the most brutally honest design in divine medicine, granting immense capacity without offering a shred of relief.
He refused the velvet cot that palace officials attempted to position inside the council annex, remaining upright in a stiff armchair.
At each dawn he sat wrapped in a coarse blanket, listening intently as district scribes recited the casualties across each damaged ward.
The first dawn concluded with forty former hosts found in outlying districts still drawing breath beneath the vigilant care of the capital relief teams.
The second dawn sparked heated disputes between rival district scribes over duplicate casualty listings across a collapsed residential terrace.
