The mistake wasn't cruelty.
It was confidence.
---
The Optimization
The rain stopped overnight.
The mud dried.
Paths reappeared.
For a brief moment—
The world felt better.
Ace woke coughing, weaker than before, but alert enough to frown.
"…That's wrong," he murmured.
Ravenna hovered near the window.
"Isn't this what we want?"
Ace shook his head slowly.
"No."
He swallowed.
"When systems panic, they don't attack."
"They optimize."
---
False Relief
The baker's oven worked perfectly.
Too perfectly.
Bread rose at identical rates.
Every loaf identical in color, shape, and texture.
Customers praised the consistency.
The baker stared at the racks in silence.
"…Why does this feel wrong?" she whispered.
Across town—
The librarian's shelves reorganized themselves.
Efficient.
Minimal movement.
Zero redundancy.
She gasped.
"No—wait—that index deletes cross-references!"
The dragon's cave expanded.
Straightened.
Smoothed.
Ventilation flawless.
The dragon felt cold.
"…It erased the bends," he rumbled.
"The places I remember."
---
Ace Sees the Error
Ace dragged himself upright.
Blood spotted his fur again.
Ravenna caught him.
"Ace, stop—"
"They removed variance," he whispered.
"They think variance causes instability."
Ace laughed weakly.
"That's the mistake."
He looked at Ravenna.
"They optimized away choice."
---
The Quiet Rebellion
No one announced it.
No one coordinated.
They simply… didn't comply.
The baker altered recipes by hand.
The bread tasted better.
The librarian reintroduced redundancies manually.
Students returned.
The dragon piled gold messily again.
The cave warmed.
Each act tiny.
Each act inefficient.
Each act human.
The optimized systems began to drift.
---
The Feedback Loop
Somewhere—
The starlight pool flickered violently.
"That shouldn't happen," the figure hissed.
"They're deviating without incentive!"
The gears screamed.
Optimization collapsed under unmodeled behavior.
The system attempted recalculation—
And failed.
For the first time—
It logged an error.
---
Ace's Last Lesson (For Now)
Ace lay back down.
Breathing shallow.
Ravenna held his paw.
"…Did we win?" she whispered.
Ace smiled faintly.
"No."
"But we proved something."
He closed his eyes.
"You can't optimize life."
Outside—
A loaf burned slightly.
Someone laughed.
A bridge creaked—but held.
The world didn't stabilize.
It lived.
---
The Cost Returns
Ace didn't wake the next morning.
Not fully.
He breathed.
But didn't speak.
Ravenna screamed for help.
People gathered.
The network—
The culture—
Held.
But Ace—
The buffer—
Had reached a limit.
Somewhere—
The figure stared at the pool.
"…If he dies," they whispered,
"the system recalibrates."
The pool shimmered.
Uncertain.
For the first time—
The system didn't know the outcome.