The morning after the forum did not arrive with panic.

That was the most dangerous part.

Varenth woke as it always did—transport lanes breathing open in measured pulses, towers bleeding light into low cloud, schedules sliding into place with mathematical grace. The city moved with the confidence of something that had survived worse than unease. There were no riots, no mass refusals, no visible fracture lines for the city to rally around.

Nothing dramatic enough to resist.

But people ...