Time does not announce itself when it changes you.Days passed. Then weeks. Not in a blur, but in a gentle, almost polite sequence. I still went to Haven sometimes. I still answered messages. But I no longer felt like the axis everything turned around.
And the world did not collapse.
That was the strange part. For so long, I had believed that if I loosened my grip, something would break. Instead, things seemed to breathe easier.
One morning, I received a message from a small regional hub asking for advice on a dispute. I read it twice. Then I forwarded it to Rina with a short note.
"You decide. I will support the result."
She replied with a single word. "Understood."
I put the terminal down and went back to making tea.
In the past, that message would have consumed my entire morning.
Now, it was just… one message.
I started spending more time walking. Not for exercise. For observation. I watched how neighborhoods changed. How shops replaced each other. How people aged. How some buildings stayed the same and others vanished.
I realized something uncomfortable.
The city was beginning to change in ways that had nothing to do with me.
And that was healthy.
One afternoon, I ran into the café owner from Morning Credit again. Her business looked a little better than last time. A few more customers. A bit more confidence in her movements.
"You still wander a lot," she said.
"So do you," I replied, nodding at the busy café.
She laughed. "Fair enough."
We talked for a while. Then she asked, "What do you do, anyway?"
I considered lying. Then decided not to.
"I used to build things," I said.
"And now?"
"Now I watch them exist."
She thought about that. "Sounds like retirement."
"Not exactly," I said. "More like… graduation."
That night, the system appeared again.
[ Distance Increasing
Influence Index: Declining
Psychological State: Stable ]
I stared at the words.
"You make it sound like a problem," I said.
There was no response.
A few days later, I was invited to a meeting. Not as a leader. As a guest. They wanted my opinion on a long term cultural initiative. Something about integrating training programs into public education.
I listened. I commented. I asked questions.
Then I left.
They continued without me.
Walking home, I felt a strange mix of relief and something like nostalgia.
At home, I found an old photo on my terminal. The earliest team. All younger. All more tired. All more afraid.
We had been so certain that everything depended on us.
We had been wrong.
Before sleeping, I checked the system.
[ System Status: Normal
Intervention Probability: Low
Trajectory: Independent ]
Independent.
I closed the interface.
For the first time, I truly understood what it meant.
The world was no longer something I was pushing forward.
It was something I was walking alongside.
At a quiet distance.