Meera woke crying.
Not loudly.
The quiet, exhausted kind of crying that slips out when someone believes they are alone.
Ira was beside her before the sound fully formed.
Meera's hands clutched the edge of the thin blanket Devansh had found somewhere in the city's forgotten halls.
"It's in my dreams," she whispered. "The place. It's… moving."
Ira sat on the edge of the platform and brushed a loose strand of hair from her face.
"What was moving?" she asked.
"Me," Meera said after a moment. "But I wasn't walking. It was like the ground kept… deciding under my feet."
Ira felt a faint tightening in her chest.
Not fear.
Recognition.
She placed her palm lightly against the stone beside Meera's shoulder. "What did it feel like?"
Meera hesitated. "Like being thought about."
The words settled heavily.
Devansh, standing near the water's edge, lifted his gaze.
Meera swallowed. "Every time I got scared, something… steadied. And every time I calmed down, it felt like something else inside the city shifted too."
Ira's breath caught.
She had not expected this.
She had not felt the city reach toward Meera.
Yet.
Devansh spoke quietly. "The city is adjusting to instability."
Rehaan, who had been leaning in the archway, straightened. "Or learning new anchors."
Ira looked at Meera.
"What do you feel right now?" she asked.
Meera closed her eyes. "Tired. And… strange."
"How strange?"
Meera searched for words. "Like I'm not only inside the place anymore. Like it's… paying attention back."
Ira sat very still.
The heaviness inside her stirred faintly, like something waking in response to another presence.
This was not supposed to happen.
Meera had not touched the foundations.
Meera had not engaged the agreements.
And yet the city had begun to register her.
Rehaan's voice cut quietly through the space. "That's how it started for us."
Ira looked up sharply.
"For who?" she asked.
"For everyone who ever stopped being simply human here," he replied.
Silence followed.
Meera's fingers tightened in the fabric. "Am I changing?"
Ira reached out and took her hand.
The fear in Meera did not rush into her.
It rested.
"I don't know," Ira said honestly. "But you're not alone inside it."
Meera's grip tightened.
And beneath their joined hands, the stone held a faint, answering warmth.