Endurance doesn't look like aggression.
It looks like boredom to those who mistake reaction for strength.
The city entered that phase quietly. No new declarations. No countermoves meant to impress. Just the same limits, the same cadence, the same refusal to make urgency our compass.
✦
Arjun noticed the shift in the noise.
"They're louder," he said.
"We're… not."
"Yes," I replied.
"That's the exchange."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
When escalation exhausts novelty, he said,
endurance becomes a mirror.
✦
By midmorning, the compression returned—but thinner, stretched across more fronts. Small inconveniences multiplied. Micro-delays. Minor reroutes. Friction designed to accumulate rather than crush.
None of it violated rules.
All of it tested patience.
✦
Arjun traced the pattern.
"They're counting on us to get tired first."
"Yes," I said.
"Because endurance looks passive until it isn't."
✦
The other Ishaan spoke softly.
