Page 30 of Thexan

“The degradation will continue.”

“How fast?”

“Faster than before.”

She absorbed that without hesitation, her hand coming to rest against my chest in the same place she had used before, the contact direct and deliberate. The alignment strengthened, the internal disruption collapsing inward under the influence of proximity, but it did not stabilize fully.

Not this time.

Her focus sharpened as she felt it.

“That should be working better than it is,” she said.

“It was, but no longer.”

Her hand remained where it was, her body closer now, the distance between us reduced to nothing as she adjusted her position without conscious thought. I felt the shift in her as clearly as I felt the change within myself, the alignment no longer one-sided, no longer contained entirely within my own system.

It was affecting her.

“You’re still responding,” she said, more to herself than to me. “But it’s not holding.”

“No.”

“Then we adjust.”

The statement carried certainty, not speculation.

I studied her for a moment, the steadiness in her expression, the refusal to step back even as the instability between us intensified.

“This will not remain contained at this level,” I said.

“I didn’t expect it to,” she replied.

Her hand shifted slightly against my chest, not increasing pressure, but altering contact as if she were testing the response without fully acknowledging the intent behind it. The effect changed again, the alignment strengthening for a fraction of a moment before slipping, the instability pushing back harder as though compensating for the adjustment.

Her breath caught.

Not in fear.

In recognition.

“That’s not random,” she said quietly.

“No.”

Her gaze lifted to mine, and for the first time since this began, there was no attempt to frame what was happening as purely medical, no effort to reduce it to something clinical and contained.

Her hand remained steady against my chest, but I felt the shift in her through the contact, the moment where she stopped treating the response as something external and began recognizing it as something that involved her directly.

“What does it require?” she asked.

The question was direct.

I did not avoid it.

“The bond has progressed beyond initial contact,” I said. “Proximity alone is no longer sufficient to maintain full stability.”

Her gaze held mine. “Then what is?”