# Crystal Drain Echo — Worldbuilding Reference

*Pre-Compact magical phenomenon. Canon from Book 3 Ch01 onward. Full design:* `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-21-crystal-drain-echo-design.md`.

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## The Mechanic

Life-force draining via a pre-Compact amplification crystal strips the victim's arcane **sheath** — the internal structure that normally keeps suppressed aspects of the psyche and dormant magical capacity regulated. The sheath does not fully regrow. What was being held down surfaces.

**The rule:** *The drain amplifies what the victim most deeply suppressed.*

The content of each victim's echo is unique; the governing rule is universal.

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## Baseline and Triggers

- **Baseline:** stable, low-grade, always present after the drain. Does not progress or worsen over time.
- **Triggers (temporary amplification):** psychological stress, active magic use, proximity to other echo-affected people, proximity to drain-trace residue (crystal artifacts, the Athel Repository's ambient field, freshly drained matter).
- **Long-term:** the victim stabilizes into a new baseline. They do not return to pre-drain state; they learn to live with the new noise floor.

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## Treatment

**Ghostveil** (Compact-suppressed arcane-dampening moss — existing canon as Kae's chronic-pain treatment) dampens the echo. Same drug, same mechanism, applies to both sides of the crystal's damage.

- Field dose modulates the echo for several hours.
- Refusing the dose is a valid character choice (see the Book 3 Ch19 beat).
- **WellsMoon** (Mere's ghostveil × Moonswell kitchen-scale hybrid) makes treatment producible without Compact supply. Broad anti-Compact leverage — the ghostveil chokehold breaks for echo-victims generally, not just for Kae.

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## Victim Map (Book 1–3 known cases)

| Victim | Drain source | Suppressed | Echo |
|--------|--------------|------------|------|
| **Phelan Varrant** | Bracelet half-absorb, Book 2 Ch09 | Dangerous/violent capacity (combat magic suppressed since Brannick bullying) | Intrusive violent-thought flashes + the fire spike manifestation (see below). Milder than full-drain victims because the bracelet absorbed the worst of the current |
| **Devod Fields** | Full drain, Book 2 Ch12 | The Wolf / Pathfinder identity (buried under wagon-vendor charm for decades) | Amplified Pathfinder — hypervigilance, cart-and-terrain tracking, "volume turned up on Pathfinder, down on everything else." Stabilized at Book 3 Ch01 (~4 months post-drain, farthest along) |
| **Calla Floundry** | Full drain, Book 2 Ch11 (canal market) | Anxiety under functional shopkeeper-wife normalcy | Panic attacks triggered by magical activity or crowded public spaces (notably the canal market) |
| **Ned Floundry** | Full drain, Book 2 Ch11 (reserves doubly depleted from prior curse recovery) | TBD | Worst dose; slower physical recovery; echo present but Mere's protocol hasn't reached him yet. Deferred content — Book 4+ material |
| **Kae Thrainn** | User/vessel, not victim. Partial — amplification drew from his own reservoir | Grief over Elara (ongoing, separate from pain) | Mild grief-flashes / depression episodes under the pain-management baseline. Stable on ghostveil |
| **Other Book 2 drain survivors** (unnamed dockworker, shopkeeper's wife, arcane-district student survivor, etc.) | Full drains Book 2 Ch02–Ch11 | Various | Each unique per Rule A. Mere's clinical ledger grows across Book 3; seeds for Book 4+ |

**Vellen Thrace** is excluded (killed during the drain).

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## Phelan's Fire Spike (Special Case)

Physical manifestation of Phelan's echo. Not new magic — **stress-mode of existing ring/whip combat capability.** The ring gives projection; under loss-of-control from a violent-thought flash, the projection locks rigid instead of shaping as a whip. Same fire material, different structural form.

- **Form:** stiff fire projection, ~15-foot effective reach. Glasses stone on impact.
- **Trigger:** an intrusive violent-thought flash spikes sharply enough that Phelan's suppression of the buried combat capability breaks.
- **Flaw Sight reading:** when the spike forms, Phelan's own Flaw Sight shows him its structure is *wrong* — held by desperation, not by design. The central book-level thesis landed in a single beat: the man who finds every flaw in other people's magic watches his own magic form around a crack.
- **Cost:** psychological, not physical. The voluntary whip is available afterward. The spike is a stress-mode to revert from.

Two on-page uses in Book 3: Ch17 primer (mercenary ambush, half-second flicker) and Ch19 peak (Cass confrontation, Phelan reverts to whip and wins with restraint).

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## Compact Knowledge (Compartmentalized)

- **Senior leadership** knows the echo mechanic in fragments. Pre-Compact archive material referencing it is held in restricted sections; officers who approach it are redirected.
- **Cass operationally knew.** This retroactively reframes Book 2 Ch12 — Cass chose Devod specifically because he knew the drain would amplify the Wolf.
- **Rank-and-file Compact officers don't know.** Enforcement personnel at Book 3 Ch18 standoff are doing their jobs without the full picture.
- **Ghostveil chokehold** is partly about limiting echo-treatment access — Compact leadership knows this; public justification is pricing/supply control.
- **Book 3 archive-leverage beat (Ch20):** one of the inscription panels Phelan lays down at the gate is echo documentation; the Compact commander recognizes it on-page. That is the reader's confirmation the Compact knew.

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## Terminology

- **Team shorthand:** "the echo" — coined by Mere in Book 3 Ch05 before the archive exists for them.
- **Pre-Compact technical term:** gloss as *depletion residual* or *sheath-loss imprint*. Specific pre-Compact word is a drafter commitment during Book 3 Ch13–Ch14 drafting (the archive scenes). Both terms coexist in prose after Ch14: team dialogue says *echo*, archive pages carry the technical term.

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## Discovery Arc Pointers (Book 3)

- **Seeded** Ch01 (Phelan violent-thought flash at bracelet-warming), Ch02 (grievance reveal flash), Ch03 (fusion scene flash at the microscope). Devod's on-page Ch01 behavior retroactively reads as the echo.
- **Catalyzed** Ch04 — Kimbra's therapist-trained observation gives Mere the last variable.
- **Named** Ch05 — Mere visits Calla, crystallizes the hypothesis, tells Phelan *"I think the drain leaves something behind. I'm calling it an echo."*
- **Mechanically confirmed** Ch06 — Mere trials a low ghostveil dose on Phelan in the carriage; noise quiets.
- **Archive-confirmed** Ch13–Ch14 — Phelan finds pre-Compact documentation of the phenomenon alongside the flawfinder's gift.
- **Peak** Ch19 — Phelan's ghostveil refusal + fire spike + restraint-win.
- **Institutional payoff** Ch20–Ch21 — archive leverage panel at the gate + Ledger naming echo documentation in the elevation scene.
- **Coda** Ch22–Ch24 — WellsMoon kitchen production serves victims broadly; Kimbra writes home to Wensley asking if any neighbors were ever drained (Book 4+ seed).

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## Related Files

- `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-21-crystal-drain-echo-design.md` — full design spec (Book 3 integration map, retrofits, character updates)
- `world/magic/runic-flow-rules.md` — magic system overview (pointer added)
- `world/magic/exploits-log.md` — will receive a fire-spike entry when Book 3 Ch17 or Ch19 is drafted
- `outline/book3-outline.md` — The Echo Thread section + Subplot Thread Map row
- `world/story-summary-book3.md` — plot-thread row for the echo
- `characters/phelan-varrant.md` · `characters/mere-fields.md` · `characters/devod-fields.md` · `characters/kimbra.md` · `characters/supporting-cast.md` (Calla, Ned) · `characters/kaeran-thrainn.md`
