Chapter 56 The Flame

• Five years passed after the Great Bifurcation.
• By then, the world had changed again—not through war or crisis, but through *quiet decisions.* Every village, city, and sky-island had chosen whether to stay connected to the shared resonance stream or to live memoryless, private and present.
• Some became *Silent Towns*, where people lived without archives. No names were written. No emotions stored. Life moved like a breeze—gentle, unmarked.