Marrick rewrote the contract three times before breakfast while the final vellum waited beneath his elbow.
Its margins were crowded with caps, refusals, and the line that kept Seliza's house from treating the mountain as a second inheritance.
Hajin stood behind him with Ash on one hip, and the child kept reaching toward the ink pot.
Hajin moved the pot out of range without ever looking away from the road map.
"Your handwriting worsens whenever rich people breathe near the table, and Seliza is waiting outside with forty guards," Hajin said.
"This document decides whether the region eats through winter, and my fingers would prefer fewer opinions before the seal cools," Marrick replied.
Juna watched the red guard line through the open door with her glaive loose at her side.
Loccy stood beside the first wagon with her hammer across one shoulder, and Vella kept Hans seated near the inner wall under healer instructions.
