The encounter happens without announcement.
No summons. No formal request for time. Just a presence at the edge of the day, waiting without pushing. I sense it before Adam says anything, not as pressure but as a shift in attention, the way a room changes when someone steps inside and chooses not to speak yet. The air feels fractionally fuller, like something has leaned in without crossing a line.
It is not the same faction as before.
That is clear immediately, even before I see them. The attention feels different. Less practiced. Less layered with intent. When I step closer and take them in properly, the difference sharpens.
The representative is younger, not in age alone but in bearing. Less polished. Less armored. They do not carry themselves like someone who has rehearsed this excha
