Location:Imperial City — The Jade Spire, Kael's Private Study
Date/Time:TC1856.04.22 (Evening)
The box arrived on a day when Kael had already won three small victories and was beginning to believe that winning small was enough.
***
Six months of careful work.
He worked from memory, from handwritten notes he burned after reading, from the detection brooch that Seven Peaks had sent through Thorne — a formation-enhanced device the size of a coat button that pulsed warm against his chest whenever he stood near someone whose spiritual signature carried the colonial marker.
Eight compromised officials identified in the Imperial Palace complex. Five neutralized through political maneuvering — duties reassigned, decision channels rerouted, the compromised officials walking the halls in perfect comfort while the actual governance flowed through channels they couldn't see.
