The morning. It was, like any other morning. The sun was up. That was it. The morning arrived without doing anything.
The city did not say anything about the change. The city did not get brighter all of a sudden. Become quieter to show respect. The city just changed a bit. The city changed the light to be a bit warmer, the city changed how often the traffic moved, the city had more people walking around, and it all just fell into place like a piece fitting into a puzzle.
Eiden saw everything that was going on. At first, he did not really notice it. The system took in all the changes before Eiden did. It put the information into the background noise that was always there, even when Eiden was sleeping. The beat, behind his thoughts, changed its pace, going a bit faster now. There were civilians around. Commercial activity was going up. This was something that Eiden expected to happen. The civilian density increase and the commercial activity spike were things.
The man stood near the edge of a pedestrian overpass. His hands were resting loosely at the sides of his body. The man's eyes were unfocused in a way that made him look like he was not doing anything.
The hovercars were moving below him. They slid along their lanes in arcs. The paths of the hovercars crossed each other without touching.
People were crossing the street in groups. They were spacing themselves out so they would not run into each other. A man was walking with a woman. He slowed down so he could walk with her.
A courier jumped over a railing. He did it easily. The courier started running as soon as he landed. The hovercars kept moving in their lanes.
Patterns.
Kairo leaned against the railing a step away. His elbows were. His chin was resting on his folded arms. Kairo had been quiet for minutes now. This was long enough that Eiden thought it was worth noticing. Eiden found it notable that Kairo was being so quiet.
Eiden said that I am thinking loudly.
Kairo let out a laugh. "That is not how you think things through," he said. Kairo was basically saying that things do not work that way when it comes to thinking about stuff. Kairo meant that thinking is not that simple.
Eiden said it is, for you.
Kairo looked over at him. "You have been staring at the traffic for ten minutes."
"Twelve."
That is really bad. The situation is worse.
Eiden let the corner of his mouth curve up a bit. He said, "You told me you wanted to walk around the city. This is what the city is, like."
Kairo pushed off the railing. Stood up straight, stretching his shoulders. "I want to go for a walk, yes. Not just stand here like this." He waved his hand at the street. "You look like you are waiting for something to happen to the city of Kairo. The street looks really still. Kairo thinks that something is off."
I am confirming that the thing will not happen. The thing is not going to work out.
I am talking about the thing. I am confirming that the thing will not do what we want it to do.
That does not make me feel better.
They started moving, falling into step without talking about it. This is how it has been since they got back together. They just stay close to each other without saying anything. It is not that they are friends or anything. They just stay near each other. They got used to being around each other when things were tough, and now they just keep doing it because it is what they are used to.
The street got bigger as they went down. It turned into a part of town where people buy things. This area was already busy with people doing stuff. The people selling things were yelling out what they had for sale that day. The signs with lights on them were changing what they said. They were not flashy. The street smelled a bit like oil, sugar, and hot metal.
Eiden looked around. He was not looking at anything in particular. He was paying attention to the way people were standing and sitting. Some people were still a little stiff from what they learned that day. Most people were feeling better now. Eiden noticed that a few people were still having some trouble.
A woman stopped walking all of a sudden, her forehead got all scrunched up because she was having trouble keeping her balance. She was okay in a second. It was clear that her body was not reacting as fast as she wanted it to. Some teenagers were laughing loudly; they were being super goofy. You could tell they were still feeling the rush of excitement. A man who was standing at a corner stall had a tight grip on the counter; his knuckles were even white, which made him look really nervous.
Nothing dangerous. Not yet.
Kairo saw that Eiden was moving really slowly. "You have seen something again," Kairo said to Eiden.
Eiden shook his head. "No. I am just verifying the details, " Eiden said.
"Verifying what?"
"That today is ordinary."
Kairo frowned. He said that it is a weird thing to check.
If you think something is definitely going to happen, then that is what you get. Only if you assume that the thing is guaranteed to happen can you say that for sure. The thing is only true if you believe it is definitely guaranteed.
They stopped at a street vendor who was selling flatbread, and something fried that was making a soft crackling sound in the oil. Kairo ordered away, and you could tell he was really excited, even though he was still a little uneasy. Eiden said no thank you with a shake of his head, but the system was still paying attention. It noted the number of calories in the food and observed that the vendor had a steady hand and was moving efficiently. The system was looking at the vendor and the food, the flatbread, and the fried thing, and it was taking note of all these details.
Kairo took a bite of his food. He chewed it slowly, then he let out a sigh. "Okay, that helps me feel a little better," Kairo said.
Eiden saw the steam rising into the air. He said, "Food brings people together."
"Is that from experience or observation?"
"Yes."
The people in question moved on.
Time went by slowly. It was not like hours were passing or a few moments. The city showed itself to Eiden in layers as he walked around with someone. They saw houses and apartments, then they came across bus and train stations. These stations were right next to streets where people sold things. Eiden took it all in. Kept changing what he thought about the city in his mind.
No prompts. No alerts.
The system was really patient. This actually bothered him a lot more than anything, even the big spikes, in the data. The system being so patient was just weird.
They finally found a plaza with screens showing news all around. The news on these screens said "Global Reintegration Update: Tutorial and System Windows Deployed Worldwide." You could see videos of people from different countries doing the tutorial. Global Reintegration Update was a deal. People, in these videos, looked relieved or really confused. Experts were talking about what the Global Reintegration Update means for the world. They were arguing about whether it's safe and what might go wrong with the Global Reintegration Update.
Kairo raised an eyebrow. "So the tutorial thing was not just for people here? I thought the tutorial thing was something they were trying out to see how it worked."
Eiden's eyes looked around at the people watching the screens. "No," he said. "This happened around the world. The reintegration was. Done at the same time everywhere. Every system window and every tutorial module was adjusted at the moment. People watching in parts of the world saw the same things happen in the same order. The people who were observing this in regions all reported seeing the same sequences of events. Eiden was talking about the reintegration of the systems and how it was coordinated globally.
"Crazy," Kairo muttered, shifting closer. "People saw the thing, I guess. The system and all its prompts and tutorials and instructions everything was the same, for everyone, the system and its stuff.
"Everything," Eiden said. Not the weird things that happened. Those only happened to people who took part. The people who were really good at noticing things, or people who were on paths, or people who had their neural interface set up specially. These people were different from the others. The weird things only happened to these people, like the ones with perception or the ones who were exposed to critical paths or the ones with unique calibration, in their neural interface.
Kairo frowned. He said, "What do you mean by anomalies?"
Eiden looked at the screen for a time. The screen was showing a news person talking and pointing at a video of a computer window. The news person was saying, "We are seeing fragments, things that are not supposed to be. We are seeing projections that are not meant to be seen. We are seeing very rare ghost windows, and we do not know when they will happen."
Kairo tilted his head. He was really trying to understand what was being said. He thought about it for a moment. "You mean like ghost windows are similar to glitches?"
Eiden said this quietly. He was talking about glimpses. These glimpses are like things that might happen in the future. Not everybody gets to see these glimpses. When people do see them, they are always trying to tell us something important. Eiden said that glimpses always mean something.
At that moment, a screen behind them started to flicker. It was different from the news they were watching. A see-through interface popped up for a second. It showed a street that looked a lot like the one they were on. The street was empty and really quiet. It also looked run-down. Shadows were moving around. You could not see what was making them. A counter was ticking away fast on the interface. Then the interface disappeared. The screen just showed static for a moment. After that, the news came on.
Kairo gave Eiden a push. "Did you see that thing?"
Eiden's eyes got really small. "Yes. That was not supposed to be on the television. That is something."
"Is there something? " Kairo said again. You could tell he was getting a little nervous. Kairo did not sound very sure of himself, and he was starting to feel uneasy.
Eiden looked around at all the people. He said, "This thing only showed up to us.. Maybe just to a few of us. It is like a warning or maybe something to think about. It could be a test. We do not know that yet. One thing is for sure: it is a sign of what's coming. The phantom interface is like a layer on top of the world, showing us pieces of what the future could be, like. The Eiden interface is really a phantom; it is not really there. It is showing us fragments of a possible future, and that is what Eiden is trying to figure out.
Kairo shivered. He said, "Is this a future?"
Eiden said this softly. The system will sometimes show us pieces of what is going to happen. It is not telling us what to do. It is not giving us any advice. The system is just showing us what it sees. The system always says what is true, even if we do not know what it means. The system is always honest, even when we do not understand it.
The plaza was back to normal now. People were walking around. Laughing as if nothing had happened. They did not know what was going on. The regular screens, in the plaza, started working, showing people talking about things and graphs. Kairo kept looking at the empty air, thinking that something would show up again. Eiden was quiet; he was already thinking about what had happened, trying to remember every single thing that occurred.
This changes everything, Kairo said in a quiet voice.
Eiden did not say anything. The only thing he knew was that the Phantom Window was a sign of something that was going to happen. It was like a peek at a world that Eiden and the others might have to live in soon. The Phantom Window was also a mystery that only they could figure out.
They walked away from the plaza. Went down a quieter side street. The noise of the hovercars got softer. Now they could hear people walking. Sometimes they heard people talking. They also heard the sound of drones that were far away. The hovercars were not making much noise now. The drones were still humming. It was a low sound.
Kairo broke the silence. "You ever think about the broadcast and what it means? The phantom windows and the tutorials are all pretty weird. It is, like we are not the ones who saw these things, right? The broadcast and the phantom windows, other people must have seen them too."
Eiden nodded. "Yes. Some people were exposed to the system. Some of these people will fit in fine. Some of them will really struggle with it. The system keeps track of everything it looks at all the information. It sorts people out. The people who notice that something is not quite right may be the ones who can make a difference. They may be a problem. The world is now a complicated place. It has many layers. The system is layered. The world is layered.
"Layered" is what Kairo said. I do not like that word. The word layered feels like it is dangerous to me. Kairo thinks that the word layered is not a thing.
Eiden said softly that layers are neutral. The problem comes from the choices we make inside them. When we are aware of what's going on, we can have some control. When we do not know what is happening, we have to deal with the consequences. Layers are layers; it is what we do with them that matters. Layers can be good or bad depending on the choices we make within the layers.
Kairo ran his hand through his hair. He was feeling uneasy. He was trying to think this through. "So, the window, we saw what that thing is? Is it a warning to us? Is it a test for Kairo and the others? Is the phantom window something that Kairo and the others have to stop from happening?"
Eiden's eyes looked around the rooftops and alleys, noticing every little thing that moved. He said, "This is a signal. We have to figure out what it means. We have to get ready. The meaning of the signal will become clear to us."
For a long time, Eiden and Kairo walked without saying a word. The city was quiet. It was still talking to them in its own way. People walking down the street, shadows moving across windows, and water splashing in a fountain all had little things going on that Eiden noticed. Eiden watched these things. Thought about them. Kairo tried to pay attention, but Kairo was a little slower at figuring it out. Eiden and Kairo kept walking and looking at the city. The city was full of patterns that Eiden saw, and Kairo was trying to see them too.
The sun got higher in the sky. That made the shadows longer. They finally found a park that was stuck between some big buildings. People were jogging by. Kids were laughing. Eiden paid attention to all the things that were happening, like how one thing affected another thing. The Phantom Window was still on his mind. It was like a warning that, on quiet days, there could be some really big things going on that you do not see at first.
Kairo looked at him. "Scout, I do not know how to explain this. Even when nothing is going on, it feels like something is going to happen. It is like the quiet has a lot of weight to it. The quiet of the Scouts' situation feels heavy."
Eiden let a little smile show on his face. He said, "Being quiet is not really being empty. It is like having lots of things on top of each other, and each one of these things means something. Even if you do not see it or notice it, it still affects what happens later. Quiet is, like that, it has layers, and each layer of quiet is important. The quiet shapes what comes next."
The city was moving around them, but most people did not even notice it. However, two people saw everything that was happening. You could see patterns everywhere in the city in the dark and, in the light, when people were moving and when they were standing still. The Phantom Window was the beginning; it was the first sign of something big that might happen with the Phantom Window.
And in that, there was power.