The system did not fracture.
That was the first miscalculation.
In the hours following Cassian's departure, analysts across sectors waited for volatility, market spikes, political backlash, sudden withdrawals. They had modeled for chaos, predicted recoil, prepared language for damage control.
Instead, the architecture absorbed the pressure and redistributed it.
Quietly.
Deliberately.
Across networks, transparency layers adjusted, not to suppress reaction, but to contextualize it. Misinformation didn't vanish; it surfaced beside provenance. Opinion didn't disappear; it appeared labeled as such. Influence still existed, but it could no longer masquerade as inevitability.
Which meant the conflict shifted domains.
Dante saw it first in the pattern variance.
"Engagement metrics are changing," he said, standing in the operations gallery as data streamed across the curved display. "Not volume. Direction."
Victor frowned. "Clarify."
