Silence doesn't break when someone screams.
It breaks when someone speaks plainly.
The morning arrived wrapped in restraint. Not tension—restraint. The kind that settles after pressure has been applied long enough for everyone to understand its shape.
People worked.Requests moved.Delays persisted.
No one pretended not to notice anymore.
✦
Arjun watched a sanctioned corridor slow to a crawl, eyes tracking the stalled movement.
"They're holding everything just under crisis," he said.
"Yes," I replied."Because crisis invites witnesses."
✦
Silence held because it was deniable.
No orders.No refusals.Just friction thick enough to exhaust.
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Silence is power's preferred pressure, he said.Because it creates no record.
✦
By midmorning, fatigue began to show—not as collapse, but as hesitation.
