Chapter 131

Mara’s POV

By spring, Black Hollow had learned that a free council could spend an entire morning arguing about a bridge and still repair it by supper. Frostmere chose to keep its ice warning with a crew who could leave at dawn. Ashfall’s nursery used a local ward and a bell at the door. Other places declined links they had once been told were necessary. They were allowed to change their minds. That simple fact made the maps on Soren’s desk look different from the maps we had inherited.

The inquiries were slower. Ilyra testified about the station, and the council stripped Darius of his Examiner office and kept him in custody while the child-transfer cases were heard. Severin’s seizure of the First House was established from the guards’ accounts and the records he had left there; he remained in custody under officers from several territories as the separate harms were judged. Ironwood had removed