Control doesn't fail when it's challenged.
It fails when it's exhausted.
The city woke into a quieter tension than before—not the sharp pressure of escalation, but the dull ache that follows overextension. Things still moved. Systems still functioned. But something essential had changed.
Control was no longer confident.
It was careful.
✦
Arjun sensed it the moment we entered the central exchange.
"They're slower today," he said."Not us. Them."
"Yes," I replied."Fatigue has reached the top."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice calm and exact.
Control depends on constant correction, he said.When correction becomes effortful, authority weakens.
✦
By midmorning, the signs multiplied.
Messages arrived later than usual. Responses were shorter. Follow-ups—once relentless—were absent. Where pressure had pressed yesterday, today it hovered.
Waiting.
✦
A request that should've been immediate sat unanswered for hours.
No denial.
No escalation.
Just delay.
✦
