At six in the morning, the capital's residential districts slowly awoke to the long, steady tolling of bells.
When Innie opened her eyes, the sky outside her window had just shed the darkness of night.
Soft sunlight spread across the marble floor, forming neat, quiet patches of light.
This was no ordinary day.
It was the fortieth anniversary of the Red Tide Republic's founding, and the day she had been invited to Red Tide City as a representative of the Academy of Sciences to attend an honors ceremony.
Innie had been born in the Northern Frontier. Her father had been a captain in the Broken Blade Knights before joining the Red Tide ranks, becoming one of the first knights to lay down his weapons and enter the new institutional order.
That had given her access to a complete education: primary school, a workshop apprenticeship, preparatory classes at the Academy of Sciences. Step by step, she had reached where she was today.
She did not consider herself exceptionally gifted. She had simply understood one thing sooner than others: the world had begun to reward learning and patience.
Now she was a fellow specializing in magical engineering, selected to receive an honor at the fortieth-anniversary ceremony.
On the other side of the bed, her husband, John, was still fast asleep.
John was an engineer in the Red Tide Heavy Industry Department, responsible for stability design in large-scale energy transmission structures.
His parents had been among the first serfs liberated in the Red Tide Fief. Now they, too, lived in an apartment district with ample provisions, occasionally arguing over their grandchildren's schoolwork.
Innie did not wake him. She simply rose quietly.
She opened the window, and the city's full outline unfolded before her.
The streets were clean and straight, the signals at intersections