The amphitheater quieted again when Dreyden stepped onto the floor.
The shift wasn't dramatic. Nobody gasped or leaned forward in their seat. Still, something changed in the air. A subtle tightening. The kind that happened when people expected something they couldn't quite name.
Lucas felt it from the side corridor where he stood watching.
It wasn't admiration. It wasn't hostility either.
It was curiosity.
Dreyden walked to the center of the grid and stopped, hands loose at his sides while the system loaded the second simulation. The light from the projection field climbed slowly across the floor, sketching faint lines that marked anchor positions and hazard lanes.
He didn't look at the audience.
That alone unsettled people more than any show of confidence would have.
