I see the collapse coming like a stormfront. Red sky. Wind sharp enough to flay.
And I do nothing.
Not because I don’t care.
Because I’m tired of being the only one who does.
They keep coming, though. The other owners. The ones who’ve weathered five years of cultural audits and ten years of rent hikes. The ones who remember when this district was a symphony of species, not a sanitized showroom for human comfort.
They show up after hours, quiet and uncertain, looking at me like I’m the answer.
Marek from the Talgari tea house brings charts. “We could petition for a heritage status exemption. If we show historical value?—”
I nod, say I’ll read it. I don’t.
Yulla, the Daltari chocolatier, brings gifts. “Something to sweeten the mood,” she jokes, setting a box on the prep table. Her smile breaks when I don’t return it.
Then there’s Faren, gruff and blunt. “You led us through the blockade riots. You can lead us now.”
But I don’t have anything left to lead with. Whatever part of me used to believe in fixing things got carved out the night Kristi looked me in the eye and betrayed me with a vote.
I don’t say that.
I just scrub dishes that are already clean and pretend I’m listening.
Kiv finds me one night scrubbing the steel oven floor with industrial solvent, shirt soaked, claws bleeding again.
“Chef,” she says carefully, “this isn’t working.”
I keep scrubbing.
“We’re all watching you fall apart and no one knows how to help. We need you.”
I sit back on my heels, breathing hard. The floor gleams like a mirror.
“I’m not the one you need,” I mutter.
She crouches beside me. Her crest flutters, anxious.
“Don’t let her kill your fire.”
I look at her. Really look.
Then stand.
Go upstairs.
Take a shower that scalds the skin clean off my spine.
Collapse into bed without drying off.
That night, I dream of the restaurant on fire. I’m inside, still plating dishes. The walls melt around me, and I don’t move. I just keep cooking.
The message comes on a Thursday.
Encrypted, flagged, routed through five internal systems.
Sender: Kristi Montana
