The quiet didn't break.
It stretched.
That, Aria realized, was the true disruption. Not the disclosures. Not the shifting sentiment. But the sustained absence of spectacle. Cassian had built his influence on motion, reaction cycles so fast they never allowed reflection to harden into choice.
Now the system refused to flinch.
From the upper balcony of the operations wing, Aria watched the architecture run without intervention. Requests flowed. Disclosures integrated. Corrections propagated outward with no single node claiming authorship.
The system wasn't just functioning.
It was learning.
Dante joined her without announcement, his presence familiar enough now that silence didn't feel like distance.
"They're calling it unnatural," he said.
Aria didn't look away from the data. "Who?"
"Everyone who built a career predicting collapse," Dante replied. "Analysts are struggling to explain why volatility hasn't followed exposure."
