It began with a map.
Not a crisis report.
Not a prophecy.
Not a spike in the hum.
Just a map.
Yuki called me into the Institute’s neutral headquarters one afternoon with the kind of calm urgency that meant something was wrong but not yet explosive.
“You need to see this.”
The wall display lit up with a projection of Continental and transcontinental territories. Trade routes. Military positioning. Energy signatures. Shipping densities.
At first glance, nothing dramatic.
Then she zoomed out.
Further.
Beyond the oceanic boundaries.
Eastern Dominion.
Southern Coalition.
Northern Arctic territories.
And something else.
A faint but consistent increase in long-range relay infrastructure across three non-aligned external regions.
“Those aren’t Dominion,” Damon said, stepping close
