Across Solmere...
The very first copies of the U.K. Chronicle were already changing hands.
Roger's little gang darted through the streets with practiced precision.
Shopkeepers accepted folded papers.
Guild members unfolded them over breakfast.
Teachers pinned copies to notice boards.
Travelers tucked them into satchels before leaving through the gate network.
History...
Had already begun spreading.
No one inside the old counting house knew.
The Gathering
The meeting had not been called for prosperous merchants.
Prosperous merchants were too busy making money.
These were the ones left behind.
Mill owners who had built fortunes on slave labor.
Estate managers whose "operating costs" had tripled after emancipation.
Warehouse owners who now had to negotiate wages instead of buying replacements.
Men and women who remembered when labor obeyed without question.
Every face in the room carried the same expression.
Resentment.
Corvin Voss stood at the front.
Well dressed.
Perfect posture.
Perfectly controlled.
He allowed the room to complain for several minutes before finally raising one hand.
Silence followed.
"I know what you've lost."
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
"I lost it too."
Several heads nodded.
"Our costs increased."
"Our margins collapsed."
"Our competitors now pay the same wages we do."
"The advantages we spent generations building..."
"...vanished overnight."
He didn't say slavery.
He didn't have to.
Everyone understood exactly what he meant.
A Convenient Hero
Maelis Thornreach leaned casually against the window.
Unlike Corvin...
She preferred precision.
"Tell me."
She looked toward an aging textile owner.
"Has your business recovered?"
"No."
"The tannery?"
"No."
"The farms?"
Several owners shook their heads.
"The mines?"
"No."
She folded her hands.
"And yet..."
She glanced toward the town outside.
"Everyone keeps saying Solmere has never been wealthier."
That stung.
Because it was true.
The town was flourishing.
They simply weren't.
Jax hadn't ruined Solmere.
He had ruined their position inside it.
The Second Fire
Corvin began pacing slowly.
"Today..."
"People cheer Darquebane."
"They call him a hero."
"They call him a protector."
He stopped.
"And perhaps today..."
"...he deserves it."
The room looked surprised.
Corvin nodded once.
"He defeated the Empire."
"I won't deny that."
"But heroes change."
History is full of them."
He looked each merchant in the eye.
"What happens when the man with dragons decides twenty percent isn't enough?"
No one answered.
"What happens when twenty becomes forty?"
"Forty becomes sixty?"
"Sixty becomes everything?"
One merchant frowned.
"He wouldn't."
Corvin smiled politely.
"I hope you're right."
Then he asked the question he had been building toward.
"If you aren't..."
"...who stops him?"
Silence.
No one had an answer.
Because there wasn't one.
The Empire
Maelis stepped forward.
"You're asking the wrong question."
Every eye shifted toward her.
"The greater danger isn't Darquebane."
"It's what follows him."
She walked slowly around the room.
"The Empire lost one hundred soldiers."
"They will return."
"Not with one hundred."
"With one thousand."
"Perhaps three."
She stopped beside the door.
"And when they do..."
"They won't ask who supported him willingly."
"They'll simply ask..."
"Who prospered while he was here?"
Fear settled over the room.
Real fear.
Not invented.
The Empire had done such things before.
The Plan
One merchant finally spoke.
"So what do we do?"
Corvin answered immediately.
"We do not attack him."
Several looked confused.
"We attack certainty."
Maelis smiled faintly.
"Now you're thinking."
Corvin continued.
"Find every mistake."
"Every failed business."
"Every contract."
"Every dissatisfied merchant."
"Every worker he dismissed."
"Every family he couldn't help."
"If he has enemies..."
"We give them a voice."
Maelis nodded.
"And if he doesn't..."
"We wait."
She looked around the room.
"No man remains perfect forever."
"When he stumbles..."
"We make certain the continent hears about it."
Corvin folded his arms.
"The mayor."
Several merchants looked toward him.
"He survives by backing whoever he believes will win."
"If enough influential citizens begin expressing concern..."
"He'll distance himself."
Maelis continued seamlessly.
"Guild officials."
"Business leaders."
"Teachers."
"Council members."
She paused.
"We don't need everyone."
"We need enough."
Another merchant frowned.
"And if Darquebane never gives us a reason?"
Corvin smiled.
"He doesn't need to."
He looked around the room.
"We simply ask questions."
"'Should one man possess this much power?'"
"'Should one merchant own gates across the continent?'"
"'Should anyone command dragons?'"
He shrugged.
"We don't answer."
"We let people answer for themselves."
Maelis finished the thought.
"Fear is always strongest..."
"...when people believe they discovered it themselves."
Several merchants slowly nodded.
The room felt different now.
Not angry.
Organized.
Across Town
Two merchants quietly excused themselves before the meeting ended.
Neither liked what they had heard.
Neither entirely disagreed with it.
They simply wanted another perspective.
They climbed the stairs to the Aurabelle School.
Kat was already waiting.
Her desk was covered with fresh ink.
Blank paper.
And notes.
She looked up.
"You attended."
"We did."
She uncapped another bottle of ink.
"Good."
"I don't want rumors."
"I want exact words."
The older merchant nodded.
"I remembered everything."
Kat smiled.
"So did I," said the other.
She dipped her pen.
"What they don't know..."
She glanced toward the window.
"...is that the first Chronicle is already in nearly every hand in Solmere."
Outside...
Roger sprinted past with his empty satchel.
The first issue had already been delivered.
By the time Corvin and Maelis stepped into the streets...
The people they hoped to influence...
Would already be reading a different story.
They simply didn't know it yet.