Thanks. That is a fair read.
The contrast was meant to show the prophecy losing authority in real time, but some of the repetitions are probably over-explaining the same mechanism. The seal moment especially could be cut tighter
Glad the theme still landed. I wanted the impossible to be less about a failed prediction and more about a deterministic culture encountering an unwritten event.
And thank you. That last compliment means a lot. I’ll keep the structure, but sharpen the italic sections in revision.