Blueprints were once Cael's refuge.
Now, they were battlegrounds.
He stood before the central console inside the planning chamber of the Common Thread Hall, flanked by two very different projections:
On the left—Arna's proposal. Curved walkways, moss-grown domes, community-led kitchen units. Low-rise, low-risk. A city built to heal.
On the right—Riven's plan. Linear paths, fire zones, two new guard towers made from reprocessed reinforcement brackets. A city meant to hold.
In the middle—Lys's structure, still half-integrated, still drifting in the system's adaptive draft loop like a ghost waiting for acceptance.
[MULTIPLE SCHEMATIC CONFLICTS DETECTED]System Suggestion: Arbiter Vote RequiredCivic Impact: HighTrust Rating at Risk: -12% (if left unresolved)
Riven crossed his arms.
"If we don't secure the west pass, we won't survive the next Spiral."
Arna shook her head. "You're building for siege, not growth. The people are exhausted. They need shelter, not staging grounds."
Lys remained quiet.
Watching.
Waiting.
Cael closed his eyes.
You wanted to be a builder, not a mediator.
But Hearthcore didn't care what he wanted. Not anymore.
"We hold a structured vote," he said. "System-linked and open. Every Architect fragment, every resident over ten Cycles. Anonymous."
Riven opened his mouth.
Cael cut him off.
"Not negotiable."
The vote took one Spiral.
The result?
A tie.
Arna and Riven split the vote evenly.
And Lys's design—unauthorized, barely half-synced—gathered the remaining 16%.
That number mattered.
Because no one taught those 16% to trust her plan.
They just felt it made sense.
Cael stared at the system log.
[Tie Scenario – Arbiter Override Required]Outcome must be selected by Core-linked Architect
Warning: This will establish you as ideological precedent.
He looked out across the planning chamber.
Nell stood silently behind him. Arna leaned forward, fists clenched. Riven refused to make eye contact.
And Lys…
Lys simply said:
"Choose the future you want to live in."
Cael's hand hovered over the console.
And he did something none of them expected.
He tapped all three.
"Hybrid integration."
"What?" Arna blinked.
"No one wins," Cael said. "Because the city does. Adaptive zoning. Arna's core domes in Grid Beta. Riven's towers outside perimeter delta. Lys's design becomes our next civic test structure—north sector, Zone 4."
He stepped back.
"If any plan fails? We bury it in the stone and learn."
The system hummed.
Then:
[TRI-STRUCTURE INTEGRATION ACCEPTED]Adaptive Framework EnabledNew Trait Unlocked: Distributed Urban Logic (Tier I)
Civic Response: StabilizedTrust Impact: +8%
No one clapped.
But no one argued.
And in Hearthcore?
That was victory.