The morning came without a sky.
Just a gentle, floating light that knew no origin. It seemed to come from the air itself, from every wall, every breath. The city gleamed as if it had decided overnight to renew itself. No wind, no bird, no human sound. Just the steady hum – deep, even, soothing. Like the heart of a world that finally remembered its own rhythm.
Rhea sat on the parapet of the Observation Tower. Below her, people were moving, but not as usual. They walked, stood, worked – yet every step fell in the same rhythm. No word, no glance, no deviation. It was as if they had lost language and found something else – a harmony too perfect to be natural.
"Do you see that?" asked Eiko.
He stood behind her, pale from the light that ran along his skin.
Rhea nodded almost imperceptibly. "They're breathing at the same pace."
"That can't be a coincidence."
"No," she said quietly. "That's system."
