Location: Forum Tower – Rooftop Garden
Time: 6:43 AM
Dew clung to the leaves as morning sunlight filtered over the city.
Kaen knelt beside the fresh soil patch, fingers trailing the edge of the shallow grave he'd dug for the final shard. There were no markings. No monuments. Just the earth.
Ezra sat on a crate nearby, sipping synthetic tea. "So, that's it? After all the loops, simulations, trials—you just buried it?"
Kaen didn't answer immediately. His gaze was focused—not on the shard, but on the green shoot emerging from the dirt. Life, where once there was only recursion.
> "The only way to stop a loop," he said softly,
"is to let something grow that isn't part of it."
Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Is that poetic wisdom, or a literal system command?"
Kaen smirked. "Both."
---
Location: Sector 6 – Community Planning Hall
Time: 8:10 AM
