diff --git a/KanbanTests/PointerLatencyTests.swift b/KanbanTests/PointerLatencyTests.swift
index e0a8d2b..302b25a 100644
--- a/KanbanTests/PointerLatencyTests.swift
+++ b/KanbanTests/PointerLatencyTests.swift
@@ -145,7 +145,13 @@ private final class HostedBoard {
         recordOpen = { [weak self] id in
             MainActor.assumeIsolated { self?.openedCards.append(id) }
         }
-        settle()
+        // A generous settle, and not politeness: the masonry places cards only after measurement
+        // round-trips, and until those land a click at `cardPoint` hits the *empty-space layer*
+        // instead of a card — which the dragless layer holds forever in this sterile queue,
+        // poisoning the process's held-event machinery (see the suite note above). Six turns
+        // sufficed on an idle machine; under parallel-build load it reproducibly did not
+        // (2026-08-08). The turns are cheap; the misfire is not.
+        settle(turns: 60)
     }
 
     deinit {