The street was sealed before dawn.
Wardens moved with quiet efficiency, cordoning off the impact zone while drones traced absence where matter should have been. The damage wasn't dramatic enough for the feeds—no collapsed towers, no mass casualties.
That made it worse.
Absence doesn't photograph well.
But it spreads.
Kael stood at the edge of the perimeter, hands in his pockets, watching technicians argue over readings that refused to align.
"They're calling it a resonance anomaly," Rae said beside him. "No attacker. No weapon. No motive."
Kael nodded. "Because motive implies intent."
Mira glanced at him. "And this scares them more."
"Yes," Kael said quietly. "Intent can be negotiated. Capability can't."
The Assembly convened within hours.
Not publicly.
That, too, mattered.
Elyra Senn looked exhausted.
"This changes things," she said flatly. "We can't pretend this was isolated."
Kael didn't sit.
"You also can't pretend it was random," he replied.
A delegate snapped, "You're implying internal actors."
"I'm implying informed ones," Kael said. "Someone built a system that predicts my ethics."
Silence followed.
Ashveil observed.
"Trust erosion detected."
The question came quickly.
Unavoidably.
"What do you want us to do?" Elyra asked.
Kael almost laughed.
Instead, he shook his head. "I'm not here to give orders."
"That's not good enough anymore," another delegate said sharply. "You were targeted. The city was targeted through you."
Kael met their gaze. "Then treat this like what it is."
"And what is that?" Elyra asked.
"A declaration," Kael said. "Someone just told you neutrality won't protect you."
Outside, the story was already shifting.
This time, there was no debate.
The feeds didn't ask if Kael was dangerous.
They asked whether he was worth protecting.
Rae pulled up the sentiment map. "Public confidence is… polarizing fast."
Mira scoffed. "Of course it is."
Kael watched the numbers flicker. "Fear wants a shape. They're deciding whether I'm it."
Orien Halvek finally spoke that afternoon.
Not accusatory.
Concerned.
"What happened last night is unacceptable," Orien said calmly.
"Violence undermines consent."
Kael stared at the screen.
Orien continued.
"But we must ask difficult questions.
If Kael Vorrin attracts this level of force, how do we protect people around him?"
Mira muttered, "There it is."
"He's not wrong," Kael said.
She turned sharply. "You don't get to agree with that."
"I get to acknowledge it," Kael replied. "That's the difference."
Ashveil spoke.
"Rival framing attempt detected."
By evening, Wardens requested Kael relocate.
"Temporary," they said.
"Protective," they said.
"You want me isolated," Kael replied.
The Warden didn't deny it. "You're a focal point."
Kael looked past him, toward the city.
"And if I leave?"
The Warden hesitated. "Then we regain control of variables."
Kael smiled thinly. "You never had it."
They left the city before nightfall.
Not fleeing.
Repositioning.
A quiet convoy moved them into the outer zones, where resonance interference made long-range modeling unreliable.
Mira broke the silence after an hour. "You know this won't slow them."
"No," Kael said. "But it changes the board."
Rae glanced back at the city lights. "People will think you ran."
Kael nodded. "Let them."
Ashveil spoke calmly.
"Visibility reduction achieved."
They stopped near an abandoned relay station overlooking a dead valley.
Kael stood at the edge, wind tugging at his coat.
"They tried to kill me," he said quietly.
Mira crossed her arms. "They failed."
"Yes," Kael agreed. "Which means next time won't be a test."
Rae hesitated. "What if this keeps escalating?"
Kael didn't answer immediately.
He listened—not to the world, but to himself.
"Then we stop reacting," he said finally. "And start choosing the terms of engagement."
Ashveil's voice was steady.
"Hostile environment acknowledged."
Kael looked into the darkness beyond the valley.
"This isn't about governance anymore," he said. "It's about survival between systems."
He turned back to the others.
"And survival," he added quietly,
"requires enemies to become visible."
Far away, someone reviewed the failed operation.
Not angry.
Curious.
Because now they knew something critical.
Kael Vorrin could be killed.
And he was willing to let the world see him bleed.