The first sign is not the light. It is the silence that comes after. A city at dawn has a rhythm. You can feel it in the background: the rumble of the first streetcars, the distant clatter from the docks, the steady hum of a metropolis waking up. In a healthy city, that rhythm is invisible. You only notice it when it is broken.
And then, in an instant, it is shattered.
The moment begins not w...
