Elias’s hands trembled. He had been taught that the old foods were toxic, that the colors of the past were hallucinogenic and dangerous. "Red is the color of anger and accident," the Prime Minister often said. "White is the color of control."

"It’s not a stain," Elias said softly. "It's a splash of color on a blank page. It is the difference between surviving... and living."

That was the mandate of the Great Sanitation. The Founders had decided that the world was too chaotic. Too red. Too vibrant. They called the old world the "Sloppy Era," a time of stains and unpredictability. They sought to create the —a ledger of existence where nothing could stain the record.