(Aria)
Morning arrived without ceremony.
No alarms. No raised voices. Just the soft, deliberate rhythm of a house that had already adjusted itself overnight. When I opened my eyes, sunlight filtered through reinforced glass, pale and controlled, like even the day had been screened before being allowed inside.
For a moment, I forgot.
Then I remembered everything at once.
The attack. The silence. Luca’s voice—steady, certain—telling me what would happen next as if the future were something he could simply assign.
I sat up slowly, listening.
Footsteps passed outside my door. Guard rotation. I could tell now. I recognized the cadence, the pause, the quiet exchange of clearance codes. Yesterday, I might not have noticed. Today, I noticed everything.
Awareness, once awakened, didn’t go b
