CHAPTER 140 — WHAT FILLS THE SPACE AFTER SILENCE
Silence had broken.
But what followed it was not noise.
That was the mistake many made in the early hours—expecting chaos, expecting shouting, expecting collapse. Years of managed disorder had trained them to believe that without silence, confusion would rush in to take its place, loud and uncontrollable.
Instead, something slower emerged.
Something heavier.
The space silence left behind did not fill itself automatically.
It waited.
And waiting, Elena knew, was far more dangerous than panic.
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The city woke unevenly, as if different parts of it had been given different instructions in the night.
In the central districts, offices opened early. Emergency meetings were scheduled before commuters had finished their first cups of coffee. Internal channels lit up with drafts, revisions, and questions that would once have been buried three layers down.
