### Chapter Four
She didn't ask if she could refuse.
She asked what happened when she did.
"What if I say no?" she asked.
"And you choose someone else."
The pause this time was longer.
Heavier.
They showed her.
Not domination.
Reverence.
Humanity encountering intervention without context. Miracles without models. Stability interpreted as favor. Authority mistaken for divinity.
Less peaceful. More messy. More human.
Religion blooming where understanding should have been.
Her stomach turned—not at the outcome, but at the structure of it.
This wasn't about results.
It was about agency.
About whether people understood what was being done to them—or simply thanked whoever held the power.
The thought landed heavy enough that it showed. She didn't care if they noticed.
"So that's it," she said.
"If I refuse, you become gods."
"No," the voice said.
"We become necessary."
She closed her eyes again.
Not to agree.
Not yet.
But because now she understood the shape of the trap—and where the narrow path through it might be.