Dreyden woke before the alarm.
Not because of noise. Not because of habit.
Because something felt… off.
He didn't move right away. Just lay there, staring at the ceiling, letting the feeling settle instead of trying to name it too quickly. The room was quiet. No messages. No alerts. Nothing unusual waiting for him the moment he opened his interface.
That wasn't what bothered him.
It was the absence of anticipation.
The past few days had trained everyone to expect the next shift. The next adjustment. The next layer where something that worked would stop working just enough to matter.
This morning didn't feel like that.
It felt still.
Dreyden sat up slowly.
"That's not better," he murmured.
By the time he reached the training hall, the stillness hadn't broken.
It had spread.
The room wasn't tense. It wasn't relaxed either. It felt… measured. People moved, talked, took positions, but there was a restraint to it that hadn't been there before.
They weren't reacting anymore.
