Location: New Dawn Square – Central Courtyard
Time: 6:12 AM
For the first time in generations, the plaza awoke without a tone.
No Eye-generated morning signal.
No synchronization pings.
No routine directive broadcast.
And yet… people still rose. Opened shops. Walked their dogs. Argued about coffee beans.
Life—unscripted—continued.
Kaen stood beside a fountain, watching a street performer rehearse a clumsy dance.
She wasn't good. She stumbled twice.
And the crowd cheered anyway.
> "She used to dance in the Eye's public morale simulations," Nila said, walking up beside him.
"Now she's dancing because she wants to. No one told her to smile. She just… is."
Kaen nodded.
> "We've broken the loop.
Now we find out who we are when no one's watching."
---
Location: Northern District – Reconstruction Zone 4B
Time: 7:46 AM
Ezra led a team of volunteers through a former Eye enforcement outpost. Rusted turrets and surveillance rigs hung like decaying vines.
