The morning arrived with a heavy mist clinging to the coastal dunes. It obscured the horizon, blurring the line between the ocean and the sky. This felt appropriate. The boundary between the estate lands and the northern zone was no longer just a painted line on the gravel; it was becoming a seam where two different worlds stitched together.
I woke before the alarm. The house was silent, but not empty. There was a hum in the walls, a vibration that had become constant since the visitors arrived. It wasn't intrusive. It was just present, like the sound of a refrigerator or the wind in the eaves. It signaled that the grid was carrying a new load.
Ash was already awake when I entered the kitchen. He sat at the table with a bowl of oatmeal, staring into the steam rising from the spoon. He wa
