The silence after Kaelan’s declaration was the loudest sound Elara had ever heard. We are the flaw. He said it not with self-pity, but with the cold finality of an engineer stating a mathematical truth.
She walked to the model, ignoring him, her mind already detaching from the emotional wreckage and latching onto the professional problem. The problem had parameters. It could be solved. She picked up the engineer’s report, her eyes scanning the dense technical language about load distribution, tensile strength, and unsupported weight.
“He’s wrong,” she said, her voice startling in the quiet.
Kaelan didn’t move. “The best structural engineer in the city is wrong.”
“He’s looking at it wrong.” She tossed the report aside and pointed to the model’s central spine a massive, straight column o
