Valor City, the City Planning Authority.
Howard Norton sat rigidly behind his expansive mahogany desk, his eyes fixed on the dual monitors in front of him. The screens were filled with the complex, multi-colored schematics of urban development—red, green, and blue lines intersecting in a digital tapestry of the city’s future. To a casual observer, he looked like the picture of a dedicated civil servant, deeply immersed in the technical minutiae of his craft. In reality, his mind was miles away, wandering through a labyrinth of fear and political calculation.
"I still don't understand the sudden shift in the wind," he muttered to himself, his voice barely a whisper in the silent, climate-controlled office. "Why would the provincial capital suddenly take such a pointed interest in the zoni
