Henteria Chronicles Ch. 3 - The Peacekeepers -u... -

"This isn't just contraband," Halvar said. His voice, stripped of boasts, was thin.

Mara, who had seen too many men buy security and sell their consciences, said it plainly one evening as they watched the last light leave the harbor. "They want to make the city beg for guards and then sell them those guards at a price." She spat the words as if they were sour wine. "They want the Coalition to expand." Henteria Chronicles Ch. 3 - The Peacekeepers -U...

The web widened. Men paid with coins that bore the two-winged eye. Those were traced to a smuggler's ring that had been dormant since older times. Each discovery—each small coin—made the question larger: who had the power to reawaken old rings and to recruit men who could move delicate instruments across borders? "This isn't just contraband," Halvar said

"To the Assembly—House 27," the letter said in a voice that belonged to an older century. "If you cannot receive this in person, take the enclosed evidence to the Keeper in New Iros. There are men who think the Coalition will swallow our words. The message: There is a cargo bound for Lornis with a sealed crate that contains a device. It is small. It will be passed under the guise of a merchant exchange. If it reaches Lornis, expect an escalation." "They want to make the city beg for

On the pier, Daern's boat rocked gently. He ran his fingers along the wood as if finding comfort in the familiar grain. "I'm glad you were there," he told Lysa. "You saw the marks."

The answer came not from a ledger but from a face. A man in a dark room, pulled aside by a friend who owed a favor, admitted that he had been paid by a house that answered to a single name: House Kestrel. House Kestrel was not in the public registries. It operated out of a set of warehouses that had once belonged to a line of couriers. The name suggested speed; the reality suggested logistics—men who could make something disappear quickly and effectively.