The system did not return to calm.What followed the first intrusion was not silence, but tension that lingered beneath every movement in the network. The structure the signals had formed remained intact, but it no longer felt untouched. It had been tested, and in surviving that test, it had revealed something important—not just to Aria and Cassian, but to whoever had tried to force their way in.They now knew it could resist.Which meant the next attempt wouldn’t be careless.Aria stood a few steps back from the interface, no longer leaning in as she had before. She forced herself to observe from a distance, resisting the instinct to step in, to interfere, to guide what was unfolding. The system had proven it could respond on its own, and stepping in now would risk changing the very thing she needed to understand.Cassian, however, wasn’t as patient. He moved restlessly, his gaze shifting between the stabilized signals and the outer edge
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