The Widow’s Blood Debt
"The Century Protocol has evolved into a Millennium Baseline. The moss in the tunnels is now capable of self-repair and localized energy generation. Even if we were to vanish today, the city would remain powered, secure, and un-auditable for the next thousand years. We’ve built a legacy that doesn't require heirs, only inhabitants."
I looked at my family: the Butcher, the Wraith, the Omen, the Heir, and the Auditor. We had spent our lives in the pressurized dark, believing that the only way to survive was to control the narrative. We were wrong. The only way to survive was to become the atmosphere.
"The math is zero," I said, feeling the weight of thirty years of anxiety finally evaporate in