Veyra's clever diversion of the Sentinels left Elias with a profound sense of helplessness. The bomb was moving, the clock was ticking, and his hands felt tied. His only comfort was Mei Lin, now a clear-eyed, grudging ally, though their newfound karmic bond was proving to be a double-edged sword.
As Elias frantically searched the Ledger for a new avenue, a subtle way to counter Veyra's diversion, a sharp, searing pain shot through his left arm. He gasped, dropping his stylus. It felt as though an invisible blade had just pierced his skin.
Across the cubicle, Mei Lin cried out. She clutched her own left arm, her face contorted in agony, mirroring his exact pain. Her eyes, now glowing faintly with the residual energy of their bond, locked onto his, a mixture of shock and dawning horror.
"What was that?" she whispered, her voice strained. "I felt... what you felt."
Elias looked at his arm, then at hers. The reality of their connection, forged in desperation, settled on him with a chilling weight. The Karmic Bond wasn't just about shared insight; it meant they shared pain. Every karmic distortion Elias now caused, every subtle manipulation of fate, every ripple of consequence he engineered – the backlash, the systemic cost, was now felt by Mei Lin. She was literally bearing the burden of his actions.
"It's the bond," Elias said, his voice grim. "When I alter karma... the system demands balance. The cost... it's being redirected to us. To you."
Mei Lin stared at him, her horror turning into a fierce, cold anger. "You mean every lie you tell, every life you twist... I feel it?"
"Only the systemic backlash," Elias clarified, though it offered little comfort. "The Ledger's passive correction. The consequences of pushing against its nature. It's like a spiritual bruise."
He couldn't let this continue. She would be crippled, consumed by the collective weight of his manipulations. He needed a solution, a way to externalize the cost, to redirect the karmic backlash. His mind immediately went to the single piece of Juro's Earth Core, the salvaged fragment he had kept as a haunting memento. It was inert now, but it was a vessel of primal ley line energy, a potential conduit.
"We can redirect it," Elias said, pulling the small, jagged core fragment from his pocket. "This... this is a part of Juro's old core. It resonates deeply with ley line energy, with raw karma. We can use it as a drain, a capacitor for the backlash."
He quickly explained the concept: when he made an alteration, Mei Lin would consciously channel the incoming karmic feedback into the core fragment. It wouldn't make the cost disappear, but it would move it out of their bodies.
Mei Lin, her expression hardened by pain and grim determination, nodded. "Show me."
Elias performed a minor, inconsequential karmic adjustment – subtly shifting a Bureau transfer request for a lazy clerk from one department to another. As the Ledger registered the change, Elias felt the familiar, sharp prickle of karmic feedback. "Now," he urged.
Mei Lin focused, her eyes closed in concentration, channeling her pain into the core fragment. A faint, almost imperceptible shimmer of red, like trapped heat, radiated from the core as it absorbed the backlash. The pain in both their arms subsided.
It worked. But as Elias examined the core, another grim reality settled in. Each time it absorbed a karmic cost, a tiny, unique imprint was left within its structure. The core was silently recording every transfer, creating a precise, detailed karmic paper trail of every single manipulation Elias performed. A ledger within a ledger. If the core ever fell into the wrong hands, it would expose every single one of his secrets, every lie, every hidden move. His solution was also his ultimate vulnerability.