Prices don't disappear.
They change hands.
The city woke with the quiet certainty that someone, somewhere, would be billed for yesterday. Not metaphorically—structurally. Every adjustment, every delay, every softened directive had a recipient attached to it.
The question wasn't whether there would be a cost.
It was who would carry it.
✦
Arjun noticed the redistribution before I did.
"Look," he said, nodding toward the morning shift lists."They moved the friction."
He was right.
The people who had spoken most clearly yesterday weren't punished directly today. No removals. No sudden absences. Instead, pressure drifted outward—onto adjacent teams, supporting roles, less visible hands.
Costs were being externalized.
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Power avoids direct billing when it can outsource consequence, he said.
✦
By midmorning, the pattern clarified.
