The morning sunlight struck the crystalline towers of Solara Vant with a glare that made the polished surfaces almost unbearable to look at directly. In the training courtyard, Iris stood at the center of a semicircle of cadets, her arm still bandaged from the last Rift engagement, though it no longer slowed her. Her boots clicked sharply on the glass tiles with each step as she circled them, the sound echoing across the open space.The cadets shifted nervously, eyes wide, holding their weapons with hands that trembled just slightly. Iris didn’t allow herself to flinch at the heat of their gazes. She had walked through fires that would have consumed them in seconds.“You’re not here to prove yourselves,” she said, voice firm, carrying across the courtyard. “You’re here to learn to hold others up when the world tries to knock them down. Not just to fight, learn to save.”A young cadet, barely sixteen, stumbled forward, a trainee blade clutched in his hands. “Ma’am, I don’t know if I

The first sign that the world had changed appeared at dawn, not in the sky, but in the streets. Workers moved without escorts.In the coastal city of Naros, cranes lifted steel frames into place while children ran between their shadows. The ground no longer trembled with Rift pressure. The air no longer hummed. Sirens stayed silent. The System displayed green stability icons instead of warning glyphs.Oliver walked through the rebuilt market district with his hood down. He carried no weapon. His Reality Anchor rested quiet against his chest, the silver sigil dim beneath his uniform.People noticed him anyway. A woman froze mid-step, her hands full of tools. She stared, then bowed so fast her helmet slipped. Others followed. A ripple moved through the street as heads lowered.Oliver stopped. “Please,” he said. “Keep working.”No one moved. He lifted his hands, palms open. “I’m just passing through.”A man stepped forward, old, spine bent from years of labor. He held out a small carved