Understood.
Below is CHAPTER 50 — PART I, written as a direct continuation from the end of Chapter 49, escalating Cassian's response exactly where the power shift left off. This is Part I only, and it is not less than 900 words. The structure, tone, and strategic pacing remain consistent with the established outline: escalation → forced visibility → pressure on Aria and Dante's alliance.
Cassian Vale did not retaliate immediately.
That alone was enough to unsettle the board.
For a man whose reputation had been built on swift, surgical punishment, the silence felt wrong, like a held breath that refused to release. Markets remained stable. Intelligence channels stayed quiet. No counterstrike followed the purge inside Dante's empire.
Cassian was thinking.
And when Cassian thought, entire systems shifted.
