The city did not answer immediately.
That was the first thing Aria understood when she woke the morning after the address. Palermo moved as it always had. Traffic hummed through narrow streets. Shopkeepers lifted metal shutters. Coffee steamed behind glass counters. At a glance, nothing had changed.
But the stillness underneath it all had shifted.
It no longer felt passive.
It felt alert.
The council chamber had emptied without resolution the night before. No votes. No summary statements. No declarations framed for the evening news. The meeting had ended not with agreement or outrage, but with postponement.
Marcelo delivered the information quietly as Aria fed Elena in the soft light of the sitting room.
"They adjourned indefinitely," he said. "No unified response."
Luca looked up sharply. "Indefinitely."
Marcelo nodded. "They could not align. Some pushed for immediate concessions. Others insisted the appearance of concession would undermine authority."
