The year had turned warm again, and the city stood in full light beneath clear skies. Markets were busy from early morning until dusk, and trade routes carried steady lines of cargo in and out of the gates. The Regional Stability Forum had begun to feel like a natural extension of daily governance rather than an experiment. Marcus often walked through the streets without escort, listening to small concerns and quiet praise alike. He believed that true strength could be measured in the calm faces of ordinary people. Yet even in that calm, he sensed a pressure building beyond the horizon, like a storm still too far away to hear.
The first warning did not come in the form of violence, but through silence. Elena noticed that several trusted communication channels from distant partner cities h
