The change didn't come with a declaration.
It came with absence.
No new directive.
No red banner pinned at the top of every interface.
No reminder about tolerance thresholds.
Just a schedule adjustment and a silence where enforcement rotation should've been listed.
07:58
Full-Tier Adaptive Simulation
Oversight: Observational Only
Observational only.
Lucas stared at that line longer than necessary.
"That's bait," he muttered.
"Maybe," I said.
Arden didn't speak. She was already watching the hall instead of the notice.
Fourteen students stepped into the main grid. Mixed tiers. No designated leads.
Halvors stood at the edge with his arms folded—not rigid, just present.
No enforcement units flanked the upper doors.
No containment signatures primed.
You could feel the difference.
The room didn't tense the way it used to before controlled pressure.
It weighed itself instead.
The whistle cut clean.
No one called the first move.
That pause mattered.
