There are weights no one places on your shoulders.
They appear when support is removed—and nothing falls apart.
The city woke into that kind of gravity.
No orders arrived.
No structures collapsed.
No crisis forced clarity.
And yet, something pressed down on everyone all the same.
✦
Arjun felt it as soon as we stepped into the open span where coordination used to funnel upward.
"Why does it feel heavier," he asked,
"when no one's pushing?"
"Because now," I replied,
"nothing is holding it for them."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Unassigned weight is the true test of autonomy, he said.
Because no one can complain about it.
✦
By midmorning, the shape of that weight became visible.
People didn't rush.
They didn't freeze.
They hesitated—briefly—before every decision, measuring not risk, but reach.
If I decide this, who does it affect?
If I delay, who absorbs the cost?
If I act, who will have to respond?
These questions weren't written anywhere.
