The announcement didn't trend.
It settled.
That was worse.
No dramatic reset.
No faculty-wide apology.
No formal declaration of reform.
Just a structural rename.
A soft recalibration.
A quiet institutional swallow.
The Triangle had not collapsed.
It had learned.
And that made it dangerous again.
The first official meeting of the Collaborative Hierarchy Initiative was scheduled for 14:00 in Observation Hall Two.
Not Three.
Two.
Different sightlines.
Different acoustic mapping.
Different psychological geometry.
Dreyden noticed.
Of course he did.
He arrived three minutes early.
Not early enough to look eager.
Not late enough to look defiant.
The hall had less glass than Chamber Three. More metal. More embedded projectors. The illusion of transparency had been replaced by the illusion of structure.
Lucas was already there.
Raisel entered a minute later without greeting either of them.
Two faculty sat opposite:
— The gray-haired administrator.
