The distributed structure is complete. Four nodes acknowledged, the grammar settled across London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Istanbul. It should be the end of the work.
Then a fifth signal appears.
Mara Cole has spent six years learning to read the city. She knows what the signals mean. She knows what they cost. She does not know what is sending this one, or why it has been waiting until now to be found.
Calder Ashvane has been the territory's custodian for three centuries. He has seen the grammar change before. He has not seen it reach this far.
The city becomes what it was always going to become. The question is whether they are ready for it.