Floor Twelve began to narrow.
Not abruptly—nothing in NULL ever did—but with intent. The corridor's width decreased by degrees too small to notice immediately. Only after several minutes did the priestess brush the wall with her shoulder and flinch.
"It's closing in," she said.
"It's focusing," Eiran replied.
Ahead, the floor segmented into faintly outlined panels, each one slightly different in texture. Some were smooth. Some carried shallow grooves. None of them triggered a response when stepped on.
NULL was not testing reaction anymore.
It was testing prediction.
They stopped at a junction where the corridor fractured into overlapping lanes—three paths occupying the same space, differentiated only by the angle of the stone seams beneath their feet. Standing still placed them on all three at once.
The third survivor swallowed. "This is a choice trap."
"Yes," Eiran said. "But not the old kind."
No timer appeared.
No enemies surfaced.
The priestess looked at Eiran. Then, deliberately, she looked away—at the floor, at the walls, at anything except him.
"I don't want to wait for you this time," she said quietly.
Eiran understood what she meant.
Waiting had killed Karsen.
NULL chimed softly.
SYSTEM NOTICE: AUTONOMY DEVIATION — DETECTED
RISK: MODERATE
LEADER DESIGNATION: UNCHANGED
The system was watching her, too.
Eiran stepped forward before either of them could move.
"Center lane," he said. "Single file. No adjustments once we commit."
They obeyed immediately.
The moment all three aligned with the central seam, the other two lanes dissolved—not collapsing, but phasing out, like possibilities being withdrawn.
The floor beneath the chosen path hardened.
SYSTEM NOTICE: PREEMPTIVE COMPLIANCE — CONFIRMED
EFFECT: ENVIRONMENTAL STABILITY INCREASED
The priestess exhaled sharply. "It reacted before we finished moving."
"Yes," Eiran said. "That's the point."
They continued.
Eiran felt it clearly now: the Tower was no longer waiting for orders to resolve outcomes. It was shaping outcomes in anticipation of his orders.
Which meant the real danger was shifting.
Soon, hesitation would not just delay a decision.
It would create instability.
And instability inside NULL did not manifest as confusion.
It manifested as casualties.
Floor Twelve was teaching him something precise and unforgiving:
Leadership was no longer about choosing correctly.
It was about choosing early enough that the Tower did not choose for him.
And the longer this continued, the less room there would be for doubt—
not because doubt was wrong,
but because NULL had begun to treat it as a fault condition.