Apprentices Fidget and Twine, working in the Gift Preparation Depot, notice that the miniature delivery sleds are feeling unnaturally heavy and sluggish, resisting movement despite carrying light memory tokens. This localized resistance is identified as a new form of magical drag, separate from the Density Drain reported elsewhere. Technician Twine decides to bypass protocol and seek out a remedy in the restricted Sub-Dispatch caches. They locate a chest meant to hold Momentum Paste but instead find hundreds of braids made of highly magnetic Tangle-Thread, a counter-agent for kinetic binding that has evolved since the last documented use. They retrieve the thread, facing the new complication that while it might counteract the magical drag, the strong magnetism could cause the sleds to fly off course entirely, setting up a high-stakes test of guidance and control.