Silence doesn't stay empty.
It cultivates.
The city woke without messages, without prompts, without even the courtesy of observation. Control hadn't returned overnight. It hadn't announced anything either. The absence simply… continued.
And in that continuation, something began to take shape.
✦
Arjun noticed it before I did.
"They're not hesitating anymore," he said as we passed a planning cluster."They're deciding."
"Yes," I replied."And not looking over their shoulders."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Silence accelerates maturation, he said.Noise delays it.
✦
By midmorning, the change was visible in patterns, not statements.
People didn't ask who was responsible anymore. They assumed responsibility where they stood. Tasks weren't assigned upward. They were claimed.
"I'll take this.""That's mine.""I can handle the fallout."
No approval sought.
✦
Arjun raised an eyebrow."That's new."
"Yes," I said."And irreversible."
✦
