polishing and fixing continue

chapters/book2/ch16-final.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Mere's pencil stopped. She set it down with the deliberate precision that meant
 
 Devod's hand moved to his left wrist, unconscious. The spot where Mere had been applying binding salts for days. "I don't feel anything," he said. His voice was gravel and warmth, tired but entirely himself. "Should I?"
 
-"No. It's below what you'd notice. But it's there." Mere turned to me. "It's drawing from him the way your bracelet used to draw from you, Phelan. A passive trickle. Steady, low, constant. The bracelet lost that function during the drain and hasn't had it since. But whatever Devod has — it's the same behaviour."
+"No. It's below what you'd notice. But it's there." Mere turned to me. "It's drawing from him the way your bracelet used to draw from you, Phelan. A passive trickle. Steady, low, constant. The bracelet did everything else on the inventory — the wellspring pull, the inlet burn, the manual push — but this particular function, the quiet background draw, it lost during the drain and hasn't had since. Whatever Devod has — it's that behaviour. Exact match."
 
 "The other victims don't have this," I said. Not a question. I'd been tracking the case files since the warrens family. Every victim Kae had drained followed the same recovery curve — weakened, aged, traumatised, but the drain was a single event. Channel opens, vitality pulls, channel closes. Done. "Every other drain was clean. The crystal took what it took and let go. Devod's the only one where it left something behind."