When Truth Had to Eat
Hunger did not arrive with warning.
It crept.
The first shortages were small enough to dismiss. A delayed grain delivery here. A missing medical crate there. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that could be pointed to as an attack.
Cassian noticed the pattern before anyone named it. He stood over the logistics slate at dawn, eyes narrowing as he traced the routes.
"They are redirecting," he said quietly. "Not blocking."
Lucien leaned in. "From where."
"Everywhere that hosts observers," Cassian replied. "Everywhere that records."
I closed my eyes briefly.
"They are teaching a lesson," I said. "That truth does not feed people."
Lucien's jaw tightened. "They are wrong."
"Yes," I replied. "But they know this hurts."
By midmorning, the basin felt the shift. Healers rationed quietly. Patrols shortened routes. Conversations lowered, not from secrecy, but from calculation.
