From her room, Issa had listened too. Every word, and every tone. She had heard Rain's voice, calm but worried, and Val's voice, cold with anger. The conversation was clear to her. Boreas had given them the ledgers, but they were a trick. He had made it a maze of numbers and figures designed to make a leader like Val give up.

She had heard the frustration in Val's low rumble, and the defeat in his final, weary sigh.

For hours after Rain left, the silence was broken only by Val's sighs and the ...