CHAPTER 130 — THE SILENCE THAT ANSWERS BACK
Silence was never empty.
It only felt that way to those who had depended on noise to feel important.
Elena learned this in the hours after Chapter 129's events—not through announcements or crises, but through the absence of interruption. No emergency calls. No frantic requests for direction. No manufactured urgency designed to pull her back into the center.
The system had not calmed.
It had recalibrated.
And recalibration was always quieter than collapse.
---
The city woke under a different rhythm.
Traffic moved without the invisible coordination that once followed central timing adjustments. Markets opened unevenly—some early, some late—each responding to local conditions rather than shared instruction. Communication channels stayed active, but the tone had shifted. Less escalation. More explanation.
