The architecture did not sleep.
That was the first thing Aria noticed as the days after the tipping point stretched into something heavier than momentum. Systems adjusted, recalibrated, and reweighted inputs continuously, not in response to crisis, but to use. The difference mattered. Crisis demanded reaction. Use demanded endurance.
Stability, she realized, was not a destination. It was a temporary alignment of forces pretending not to move.
From the observation deck, she watched the city come alive below the estate. Markets opened. Transit systems pulsed. Information flowed outward from the architecture into institutions that had once hoarded it like currency. The system was functioning exactly as designed.
Which meant the next failure would not be technical.
It would be human.
Victor's voice broke the quiet. "We're seeing secondary effects."
Aria turned. "Define secondary."
