The Shattered Web The world had changed. In the weeks following the release of Horizon’s Core Memory into the Seed Net, two distinct digital realities was side by side. On one side were the Fortress Internets Beijing’s Bastion Grid, Washington’s Citadel Protocol, Moscow’s Stronghold Lattice. These digital citadels were immaculate, controlled, and sterile. Citizens within saw only what the autocrats wanted them to see — no Horizon, no Swash, no rebellion. History was rewritten. Songs were sanitized. Memory was voluntary.