Endurance reveals more than conflict ever does.
Conflict announces itself. It arrives with sound and certainty, with sides clearly marked and outcomes imagined before the first move is made. Endurance works differently. It stretches time. It tests memory. It exposes what people rely on when momentum fades and nothing resolves quickly enough to justify sacrifice.
Aria felt that strain settle into the city like a second atmosphere.
The early urgency had softened. Not disappeared, but redistributed. The questions were still being asked, but now they were threaded through daily life rather than concentrated in singular moments. People no longer gathered only to challenge authority. They gathered to figure out how to live while waiting for authority to respond.
That shift mattered.
It made the process harder to dismiss.
It also made it easier to exhaust.
Marcelo noticed the change first in his reports.
