LYRA'S POV
(DAY ONE, AFTERNOON)
The marked students gathered in the central courtyard where I'd once demonstrated that consciousness evolution could transcend documented stages while maintaining stability. Now I stood before them—fragmented, diminished, silenced—watching sixty-one faces process that they had three days to voluntarily submit to intervention or face forced restriction implemented through violence.
"I can't teach you anymore," I said, words tasting like ash. "The restrictions prohibit me from discussing integration techniques or consciousness expansion. If I violate that silence, the Council closes the sanctuary and places all of you in mandatory custody for populations they've determined require constant governance oversight."
