The consequence does not arrive as disaster.
That would have been easier.
It arrives as drift.
At first, no one notices it for what it is.
Trade continues. The corridor holds. Arguments still flare and cool. Decisions are made, reviewed, remade. On the surface, the world looks like it has learned how to carry risk without collapsing.
But beneath that motion, something begins to thin.
Not resources.
Not will.
Attention.
The first sign appears in language.
People stop saying we decided and start saying it happened.
A supply reroute is discussed not as a choice, but as an inevitability. A border adjustment is described as if it emerged naturally, without hands or voices shaping it.
Rowan catches it during a routine report and frowns. “No one’s naming the decision-makers anymore.”
