Speaking is safest when it's new.
Danger comes when it works.
The city woke into a sharper quiet—not the old silence, not restraint, but the kind that follows honesty. Conversations from yesterday hadn't vanished. They had settled. People remembered what had been said, who had said it, and—more importantly—who hadn't objected.
Memory is heavier than noise.
✦
Arjun noticed the change as we crossed the central route.
"They're careful again," he said."But not closed."
"Yes," I replied."This is the moment after permission."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Speech becomes dangerous when it produces alignment, he said.Because alignment threatens predictability.
✦
By midmorning, speaking wasn't rare anymore.
It was targeted.
People chose moments. Chose words. Chose audiences. Statements were framed narrowly—about delays, decisions, criteria—not ideology.
Precision kept things alive.
✦
A woman addressed a small group openly.
