The roads changed first.
Old cart paths became polished lanes. New markers sprang up—milestones, distance stones, even basic signal flags. Courier houses were erected near villages, stocked with spare cycle parts and tools.
Trade exploded.
What once took three weeks now took five days. Potters in northern Shirevale sold wares to eastern spice towns. Grain moved before mold claimed it. Healers reached plagues before they spread.
A man named Rhoon, once a forgotten tinsmith, now ran a regional cycle maintenance franchise. A widowed merchantess became a logistics planner, coordinating supply drops to mountain settlements.
House Darsha didn't just create a machine—it created livelihoods.
And the kingdom began to warp around it.
Lord Governors requested audience with House Darsha. Maps were redrawn. Economists stammered at growth metrics once considered myth.
They called it "The Darsha Effect."
But Sharath saw deeper: a thousand dots, slowly connecting. One day, he would unify them.