The Shaman stopped pretending the world was empty. They heard the things moving where nothing should move. They felt the old presence under the ground and stopped calling it nerves, grief, or imagination. The Spirit Mask is not ceremony. It is a reminder of the line they crossed and the person they did not come back as. The Shaman stands heavy and patient, half in the world of people and half in something older. The Covenant did not make them what they are. It found them halfway there and finished the work.