Quiet doesn't stay quiet.
It advertises.
That was the realization that settled into my bones as we left the park behind. Not loudly. Not urgently. Just enough to feel like a truth I'd always known and chosen to ignore.
The city didn't reset after what we'd done.
It adjusted.
Streetlights seemed a touch brighter. Conversations carried a fraction farther. Doors closed more gently. None of it dramatic—none of it traceable.
But patterns were forming.
Arjun noticed too. He always did when the air changed without permission.
"People are looking at us," he muttered.
"They're not," the girl replied.
She paused, then corrected herself.
"They're looking around us."
That was worse.
✦
We crossed into a wider avenue lined with old offices and new cafes. Traffic flowed smoothly. Pedestrians moved with purpose. Everything worked.
Too well.
The other Ishaan stirred—not alarmed, but wary.
Systems don't like sustained equilibrium, he said.It removes their leverage.
