There is a moment when stability stops being neutral.
When simply existing begins to change the weight of the room.
The city reached that moment without announcement.
✦
It wasn't louder.
It wasn't larger.
It wasn't more aggressive.
It was just… there.
And the world began to feel it.
✦
Arjun noticed it before the indicators caught up.
"People are hesitating," he said.
"Before they decide anything that touches us."
"Yes," I replied.
"Because presence has mass now."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Presence becomes pressure when it is predictable, he said.
And impossible to ignore.
✦
By midmorning, the pattern emerged.
Meetings elsewhere paused—not to ask permission, but to account for consequence. Decisions were reframed mid-sentence.
"If the city doesn't move—"
"Assuming the city holds—"
"We need to consider the city's cadence."
Not requests.
Calculations.
✦
Arjun leaned forward, uneasy.
"They're planning around us again."
"Yes," I said.
