The third Keystone's deviation reached eighty-one percent by midnight and Aliyah began the emergency reinforcement sequence at eighty-three, because eighty-five was the point at which the Keystone's binding began to deform under the load rather than flex, and deformation was irreversible without a full re-sealing operation that would take thirty days and require practitioners she did not have.
Emergency reinforcement was different from maintenance reinforcement. Maintenance reinforcement was precise, methodical work that could be planned and paced. Emergency reinforcement was everything she could bring to the Keystone's binding at once, without the careful calibration that precise work required, accepting that the method was wasteful of her own reserves in exchange for the speed that the situation demanded.
