CHAPTER 133 — WHEN COURAGE BECOMES CONTAGIOUS
Courage did not arrive all at once.
It spread.
Slowly at first—so quietly that many mistook it for coincidence. A refusal here. A question there. A pause where obedience once rushed forward. But by the time anyone thought to name it, courage had already crossed boundaries that authority never could.
Elena saw it in the patterns before she saw it in the people.
She stood in the observation room as dawn bled into the city, light catching on glass towers and unfinished roads alike. The system was awake earlier now. Not frantic. Not reactive. Awake in the way a body is when it knows it must move on its own.
Marcus entered with two tablets instead of one.
"That's new," Elena said without turning.
"So is this," Marcus replied.
He placed the first tablet down. Then the second.
"Read them in order."
Elena picked up the first.
