Chapter 82 - Chapter 82: The Sovereign Interdict

The formal notification of a sovereign interdict did not arrive with the dramatic flare of a military trumpet or a declaration of war. It came at three o'clock in the morning as a sudden, chill silence across the central telegraph arrays of the Eastern Silk Exchange. The glass data-tubes, which had been spinning with a frantic, blue luminescent energy since the treaty was signed, gave a single, metallic click and died, their internal copper code-wheels locking into a rigid, non-negotiable freeze.