The consequences arrived the way truth often did in GarudaCity.
Quietly.
Persistently.
Impossible to ignore once noticed.
---
Oneiro Rewear's sales plateaued.
Not dropped.
Not spiked.
Just… held.
Analytics showed no failure, no crisis.
Investors, however, noticed the absence of growth.
"This isn't sustainable," one message read.
"You had momentum. You chose restraint."
Jayantara forwarded the message without comment.
Yunitra read it once, then archived it.
---
Danindra returned to the lab each morning knowing something essential was missing.
And yet—
The city's resonance reports were improving.
> CITY HUM: STABILIZING
ANOMALY EVENTS: DECREASING
"It's working," Amara said softly. "Just not for us."
Danindra nodded. "That might be the point."
---
Wirasmi became a rumor.
People spoke of a quiet workshop where clothes felt right again.
No signage.
No marketing.
Customers arrived by intuition alone.
She never mentioned the thread.
She never had to.
---
Ace met with regulators that week.
Not to negotiate.
To refuse.
"There will be no licensing," he said calmly. "No export. No demonstrations."
"You can't stop progress," one official replied.
Ace met his gaze.
"I'm not," he said. "I'm stopping ownership."
---
In the city, something unexpected happened.
Competing brands slowed down.
Designers stopped chasing trends that week.
Not because they were forced—
But because urgency felt… embarrassing.
The city exhaled.
---
Late one evening, Danindra visited the listening hall again.
Wirasmi poured him tea.
"You're paying a price," she said gently.
"So are you."
She smiled faintly. "I was always paying it."
Danindra watched the fabric beneath her hands move—subtle, responsive, alive.
"It chose you," he said.
"No," Wirasmi replied. "It chose not to be used."
---
From a distance, Ace observed GarudaCity settle into its new equilibrium.
He felt no triumph.
Only relief.
Some systems, he thought, were never meant to scale.
They were meant to remain human.
---
The world did not end.
The market did not collapse.
But a precedent had been set.
And those who noticed would remember.
That once, in GarudaCity, power was discovered—
And deliberately set aside.