He wore the name like armor: Isaidub Top—two syllables that bent conversation toward him. In the capital’s cracked mirror, his portrait watched a city forget how to whisper. He did not thunder; he rearranged the small certainties. Street names changed at dawn, then changed back at dusk as if the city itself were trying on identities. People learned to speak in parentheses, pausing before truth like a tide stalling at the shore.