By 4:13 a.m., the situation had escalated into what Blaze referred to as "a spiritually active event."
Personally, I believed the correct term was mass hysteria.
Unfortunately, nobody had asked me.
The entire east meditation hall had been converted into an emergency stabilization chamber lit entirely by candles and Himalayan salt lamps. Rain battered the estate windows while more than twenty people sat in a massive circle around Lucien whispering affirmations with the intensity of people attempting an exorcism.
Lucien sat in the center wrapped in layered cream-colored blankets while Saturn slowly burned herbs over a bowl of volcanic water.
The atmosphere felt less like a wellness retreat and more like a cult preparing for weather.
"Speak gently," Blaze warned as I entered the room. "His energetic membrane is thinning."
"I still don't know what that means."
"Nobody does," Marianne muttered.
She looked terrible.
At some point during the night she had abandoned professionalism entirely and wrapped herself in one of the estate robes while surviving exclusively on espresso and spiritual resentment.
Three phones rested in her lap.
All of them were ringing.
She ignored every single one.
The Shinto priest stood near the windows murmuring prayers while another healer arranged crystals around Lucien's body in increasingly alarming geometric patterns.
Saturn looked up as I approached.
His face was pale.
Too pale.
That immediately concerned me.
"How bad is it?" I asked quietly.
Saturn hesitated.
Then:
"The moon reached him."
A woman near the incense table fainted instantly.
Nobody reacted.
Apparently this was normal now.
Lucien's eyes fluttered open weakly.
"The walls feel temporary..."
Blaze grabbed his hand immediately.
"You're safe."
"I can hear colors again."
"Oh God," Saturn whispered.
The room descended into frantic activity.
One healer began ringing a ceremonial bell.
Another started crying softly into a linen sleeve.
The priest approached Lucien carefully.
"Do not resist grounding thoughts," he warned solemnly.
Lucien nodded weakly.
"I'm trying."
"What thoughts are you using?" Blaze asked urgently.
Lucien swallowed.
"...farmers markets."
"Good."
"And sustainably harvested candles."
"Excellent."
Lucien's breathing steadied slightly.
For one brief moment, hope returned to the room.
Then Lucien suddenly stood up.
Everything happened at once.
Three spiritual attendants screamed.
Two healers fainted immediately.
Someone dropped an entire tray of charged crystals.
The candles flickered violently.
Saturn physically recoiled like he'd witnessed a nuclear event.
"Oh my dear God."
Lucien swayed unsteadily in the center of the room staring blankly ahead.
"No," Saturn whispered. "No, no, no..."
Blaze looked panicked.
"What is it?"
Saturn pointed toward Lucien with a trembling hand.
"His aura."
Everybody turned.
I saw absolutely nothing.
But apparently everyone else did because the room erupted into complete chaos.
"The edges are dissolving!"
"He's becoming energetically untethered!"
"Ground him emotionally!"
Marianne finally snapped.
"Oh my fucking God," she said to nobody in particular. "He is literally just standing there."
Lucien blinked slowly.
"The room feels geometrically dishonest..."
Saturn looked moments from death.
"This is much worse than I thought."
My stomach dropped.
"How is that possible?"
Saturn turned toward me with absolute terror.
"We need an emergency evacuation."
"To where?"
He answered immediately.
"Sausalito."
Silence.
Even the rain outside seemed confused.
Blaze stared at him.
"Sausalito?"
"The coastal fog is spiritually corrective."
"The marine layer?" Marianne said weakly.
"Yes."
Lucien grabbed the edge of the blanket around his shoulders.
"I miss emotionally damp climates..."
Saturn pointed dramatically toward the mountains.
"Hakone amplified him too quickly. His energetic field is expanding beyond containment."
The priest nodded gravely.
"I have not seen this since Kyoto."
Nobody asked.
Nobody wanted to know.
Blaze paced frantically across the meditation hall.
"We can still stabilize him before sunrise."
"No," Saturn interrupted sharply. "Look at his posture."
Everyone looked.
Lucien was, indeed, standing differently somehow.
Marianne stared blankly for several seconds before speaking.
"I'm going to drive into the ocean."
"No negativity near him!" Blaze snapped.
At that exact moment, Lucien looked directly at me.
"Adrian?"
I crossed the room immediately.
"Yes?"
His expression was heartbreakingly serious.
"What if I become spiritually tech-industry adjacent?"
A cold wave of horror swept through me.
"No."
"What if I start saying things like 'synergy' unironically?"
"You won't."
"What if I download LinkedIn willingly?"
"Lucien," I said firmly, gripping his shoulders, "I would rather burn Silicon Valley to the ground myself."
His eyes filled with tears.
Blaze audibly sobbed.
Saturn turned away emotionally.
"That," he whispered shakily, "is soul-level devotion."
Then Marianne fainted.
Nobody even looked surprised anymore.