When Truth Stopped Shocking Anyone
The first sign was not corruption.
It was indifference.
A compliance report detailing civilian displacement due to infrastructure collapse circulated through the exchange.
No outrage followed.
No emergency assemblies.
No spike in civic response.
Just acknowledgement.
Logged.
Indexed.
Filed.
Cassian noticed the engagement metrics first.
"Public interaction is decreasing," he said quietly. "Not in number. In intensity."
Lucien frowned slightly. "Explain."
"People are reading," Cassian said. "They are not reacting."
I stood at the ridge, feeling the weight of that shift settle in my chest.
Truth had become routine.
Routine reduces urgency.
Urgency had once been our fuel.
Now it was absent.
The fifth presence did not return.
He would have called this inevitability.
Transparency, once normalized, loses its shock value.
And without shock, does it still compel change.
A young delegate approached during open forum.
