Gravemire was business as usual.
The fourth People's Forum meeting was underway.
Food distribution was back to normal after the rune explosion.
Systemically, everything looked… fine.
But Elias knew better.
It was Morning at the Social Integration Center
Elias sat behind a reporting desk.
His job was simple: read daily data from the lower districts—complaints, suggestions, social trends.
He had been doing this every day for two weeks.
He knew the patterns.
He knew the rhythm.
And that day, his rhythm was disrupted.
There were small things.
Too small to take seriously.
—The reports from three civilian volunteers used nearly identical language:
"We can be stronger if we are given the space to make our own rules."
—Two of them were even from different districts—and didn't know each other.
—Strange requests began to emerge: to remove the trainer system from the civilian barracks, replacing it with "leaders elected directly by the citizens."
