# Character State: ch-06

## Queen Seraphine
- **Location:** The "Dead Man’s Drop," Ironbound Range (Descending).
- **Physical:** Her hands are raw beneath the frost-stiffened bandages; the Sanguine pulse in her palms has transitioned from a rhythm to a constant, searing heat. She is coughing up "necrotic grit"—flecked with black Spore—yet her movements are eerily fluid, fueled by the borrowed vitality of the tether.
- **Emotional:** The "structural flaw" of her empathy for Aldric has become a sensory overload. She no longer calculates his survival as a tactical necessity; she experiences his exhaustion as a physical weight on her own lungs. The sovereign distance she once curated is entirely shattered.
- **Active Obligations:** To anchor Aldric during the descent and maintain the blood-shield against the Drift’s corrosive influence.
- **Arc:** 60% — She has ceased being the architect of their journey and has become the foundation. Her focus on the Valerius legacy has narrowed to the singular, microscopic point of Aldric’s next heartbeat.

## King Aldric
- **Location:** The mid-point of the "Dead Man’s Drop."
- **Physical:** Reaching the limit of his physical endurance. The "silvering" of his scars is glowing with a pale, ghostly light that repels the Necrotic Spores but pulls violently on his remaining stamina. His left leg is partially numb from the cold, making his reliance on the mountain pike—and Seraphine’s rope—absolute.
- **Emotional:** Submerged in the tether. The Thorne Madness is silent, replaced by the oceanic presence of Seraphine’s resolve. He is experiencing a rare, quiet clarity: he is no longer a martyr for a crown, but a man fighting for the woman at the other end of the line.
- **Active Obligations:** To navigate the treacherous pathing of the Drop where Malcorra’s psychic interference is most potent.
- **Arc:** 55% — The "Steel Spine" is now supple. He has accepted his vulnerability not as a failure, but as the only bridge to survival.

# World State: ch-06 (Canonical)

## NPC Memory
- **High Priestess Malcorra:** Has initiated "The Silent Admonition." She is actively projecting psychic "needles" through the tether, attempting to sever the link by agonizing the subjects. She perceives the grotto ritual as a "cancerous bloom" that must be pruned.
- **Thorne Border Sentinels:** Have spotted the light of the "silvered" scars through the storm. They have orders to fire on any "blighted shapes" approaching the wall.

## Faction Attitudes
- **The Lowen-Court:** Factions have begun seizing Valerius-held assets, declaring the Queen "lost to the Drift."
- **Inquisitorial Hounds:** Have reached the base of the Ironbound Range. They are tracking the heat signature of the tether.

## Active World Events
- **The Necrotic Drift:** Entering "Saturation Phase." The air is thick with corrosive spores that eat through leather and cloth. Visibility is zero; navigation is only possible through the internal "compass" of the resonant tether.
- **The Resonant Tether:** Now functioning as a shared nervous system. While it allows them to coordinate in total darkness, it acts as a lightning rod for Malcorra’s hemomantic strikes.

## Continuity Anchor
- **Closing Image:** Seraphine catching Aldric as he slips over a crumbling ledge, their foreheads pressed together in the blinding white-out. Malcorra’s voice whispers through their shared blood: *"Identity is a vanity the earth does not recognize."*
- **Next Step:** Breaking through the final perimeter of the Thorne Wall while the Inquisitorial Hounds close in from the rear.