Trust doesn't collapse loudly.
It thins.
The city woke into something lighter than suspicion but heavier than confidence—a careful equilibrium where people believed just enough to proceed, and doubted just enough to watch their footing.
Persuasion had softened. Choice had returned. And now, every action carried a second question beneath it.
Will this still be true tomorrow?
✦
Arjun felt it as we crossed the central span where conversations overlapped again.
"They're listening," he said."But they're remembering too."
"Yes," I replied."Trust never forgets its conditions."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Trust survives only while patterns remain consistent, he said.One contradiction is enough to crack it.
✦
By midmorning, power made its first attempt.
Not to persuade.
To prove reliability.
A long-delayed request—one that had become symbolic—was resolved cleanly, publicly, without caveats. No hidden conditions. No follow-up asks.
Just completion.
✦
