Starvation does not begin with empty stomachs.
It begins with systems forgetting how to nourish.
⸻
The first failure is light.
Not darkness.
Weakness.
Across the eastern territories, suns rise pale and thin, as if illumination itself has learned hesitation. Crops wilt without explanation. Animals refuse to eat. Ley-flows that once carried abundance through soil and sea begin to sluggishly stall like clogged arteries.
Jason stands at the global arrays for hours without moving, hands shaking as numbers pour into impossible shapes across his screens.
“This isn’t ecological collapse,” he whispers. “It’s existential malnutrition.”
Zane’s fist tightens at his side. “Speak clearly.”
“The world’s regenerative principle is failing,” Jason says hollowly. “Anything that once fed on sacrific
