Mercury squares the axis from the South Node side, the worn groove you reason from, so the inherited fluency scrapes crosswise against the turn with no give, and the strain keeps coming back as a step you talk your way around. You retreat into the familiar explanation by reflex, reaching for the answer you already trust instead of the question you have been ducking. That is not a defect. The friction is sharpening a harder question in you. Inherited cleverness was never going to carry this turn. The advance steadies the day you quit arguing yourself back to the old account.