Authority does not vanish when it becomes unnecessary.
It panics.
⸻
The Ministry wakes up to an unfamiliar silence.
Not the blackout kind.
Not the fearful kind.
The kind where reports stop arriving because no one is filing them anymore.
Jason stands in the map room, staring at empty queues where escalation alerts used to pile up.
“They’re not reporting compliance,” he says slowly. “Or noncompliance.”
Zane stands at the threshold of the gate, the heir settled against his chest, the child’s weight steady and grounding.
“They’ve stopped asking permission,” Zane replies. “Which means authority no longer has a metric.”
Jason swallows.
“That’s catastrophic for them.”
Zane nods.
“Yes.”
⸻
By midmorning, the Ministry makes its loudest mistake yet.
They speak.
A full broadcast.
No
