The city moved, but differently.

Not slower. Not faster. Just… lighter in the spaces that mattered. Varenth’s rhythm had changed imperceptibly, like the first breaths after a storm, when the wind has passed, but the air itself is altered. People still acted, still fulfilled tasks. The trains ran. Deliveries arrived. Signals flickered across the network. But between each action, there was a pause—subtle, personal, unmeasurable by any algorithm Kaelith had designed.

Draven noticed it ...