CHAPTER 118 — THE COST OF STANDING ALONE
Standing alone was never the hardest part.
Remaining upright once you realized no one was coming to steady you—that was where most people faltered.
Elena understood this better now, not as theory but as pattern. In the days following the visible divergence, the world did not rush toward resolution. It hesitated. It tested itself. Systems strained under the unfamiliar weight of autonomy, and in that strain, fractures widened or sealed depending on what they were made of.
She did not rush to observe them.
She allowed time to do what authority never could—separate intention from endurance.
