Chapter 202

Trade routes thinned first. Salt stopped arriving on time. Iron came late, then not at all. Messengers returned with polite refusals and closed faces. No one said sanction out loud—but everyone felt it settle like frost.

Caleb watched the ledgers grow sparse without comment.

“This is punishment,” Tomas said one evening, voice tight. “They’re starving us slowly.”

“Yes,” Caleb agreed. “Because hunger makes people nostalgic for obedience.”

Kaia stood near the ...