Arjun Devran Episode 1: The Price of Happiness They called it a gala because the word auction had acquired a bitter aftertaste. The broadcast opened on velvet—digital, of course—spilling across a stage whose edge glowed with the phosphor-blue logo of the Vault. A presenter in a silver suit moved like a dart of light from one podium to the next. Behind him: columns of data cascading in ribbons, small squares of people’s faces suspended in pastel halos. Above all of it, the city’s night leaned against glass, and rain threaded itself down the sides of towers as if it were…