# Character State: ch-04

## Lyra Vance
Location: The Ash-Path, outskirts of the Whispering Woods.
Physical: Extreme spiritual exhaustion; Inking spreading to her jawline; raw friction burns on palms from the anchor rope.
Emotional: Terrified by her own subconscious lethality; experiencing a fragile, confusing sense of kinship with Dorian.
Active obligations: owes herself the truth of the village’s disappearance (ch-01) — UNPAID; owes Dorian access to the map's navigation (ch-02) — UNPAID.
Open loops: [Lyra/The Guild] why the village unraveled after the map was completed (ch-01) — UNRESOLVED.
Known secrets: CARRIED (Ch-01—unresolved): knows she finished the map that coincided with Oakhaven's erasure — the Guild; CARRIED (Ch-01—unresolved): knows her physical form is being overwritten by the world’s ink — High Weaver Malakor.
Arc: 40% — She has moved from viewing her condition as a solitary death sentence to realizing she is a danger to the only person helping her.
Permanent: YES

## Dorian Thorne
Location: The Ash-Path, outskirts of the Whispering Woods.
Physical: Thread-Burn scarring on hands; sleep-deprived; limping slightly from a "void-stumble" during the trek.
Emotional: Calculatedly vulnerable; using humor to deflect from the anatomical horror of their surroundings.
Active obligations: owes Lyra protection from "Correction" squads (ch-02) — UNPAID; owes Lyra a route to the Heart of the First Fae (ch-03) — UNPAID.
Open loops: [Dorian/The Guild] his unauthorized presence in the Silent Library (ch-02) — UNRESOLVED; [Dorian/Home] the location of his lost origin point (ch-02) — UNRESOLVED.
Known secrets: CARRIED (Ch-02—unresolved): knows he is defying High Weaver Malakor by seeking his lost home — The Guild; CARRIED (Ch-02—unresolved): knows the exact frequency of the Guild's tracking threads — Lyra.
Arc: 35% — He has abandoned his "clinical distance" by choosing to laugh with an "anomaly" rather than just study it.
Permanent: YES

# World State: ch-04

## NPC Memory
- High Weaver Malakor (The Weaver’s Guild): HOSTILE -- Search parties have successfully tracked the duo to the edge of the Archive's influence.

## Faction Attitudes
- The Weaver’s Guild: HUNTER -- They are no longer "correcting" the environment but actively hunting the "Inked" girl.

## Active World Events
- The Thinning: ESCALATING -- The landscape between the Archive and the Heart is losing geometric stability.
- The Anchor Bond: ACTIVE -- Lyra and Dorian are physically tethered by a reinforced silk rope to prevent separation in non-Euclidean terrain.
- The Sleep-Erasure: ACTIVE -- Lyra’s subconscious is now capable of unravelling reality without her conscious intent.