WRONG ROOM

Half-asleep and wrapped for the bath, Mara follows the wrong open maintenance seam and steps into a cavern the size of a district. What she expected to be a hallway is a dormant Civic Hollow: empty habitat ribs, communal platforms, sealed service mouths, and enough unused space for thousands. For several moments, the joke disappears as Mara finally understands how little of Grievance she actually inhabits. When the route calmly leads her back to the tiny bath door she wanted, awe snaps back into irritation. Relationship insight: Mara is forced to see Grievance as a civilization, not merely something she owns. Grievance guides her home without explanation, revealing scale and possibilities neither of them is ready to discuss.