Chapter 61 — The Cost of Staying
The city learned something uncomfortable in the weeks that followed.
Peace was not quiet.
It was busy.
Not with alarms or urgency, but with small, relentless demands conversations that refused to resolve neatly, wounds that needed more than a single apology, systems that no longer ran themselves because people insisted on being involved. Silence no longer covered disagreement. Efficiency no longer outranked care. Every corner of the city seemed to hum with unresolved humanity.
Doors stayed open longer. Meetings spilled into hallways. Market stalls turned into debate circles. Disputes once decided by decree were now argued, revisited, complicated.
Peace, it turned out, required maintenance.
Kael felt it everywhere.
