The shift did not begin in the Court.
It did not begin in a territory.
It began in a whisper.
Ash woke me before dawn.
“Mama.”
His voice wasn’t panicked.
It wasn’t sharp.
It was quiet.
Heavy.
I sat up immediately.
“What is it?”
He climbed into bed without asking, curling into my side.
“It’s wrong.”
“The hum?”
He shook his head.
“No. It’s too smooth.”
I frowned.
“Too smooth?”
“It’s not like before. It’s like someone flattened it.”
The words hit something instinctive inside me.
Flattened.
Ezra stirred on my other side.
“You felt it too?”
I hadn’t consciously noticed.
But now that he said it—
Yes.
The hum wasn’t spiking.
It wasn’t fluctuating.
It was… muted.
Steady.
Artificially steady.
I reached for the network.
The resonance that usually felt layered and aliv
