Adventure of Jax 1

The clerk’s tray hangs between rows, wax tablet and stamped chit gleaming in the torchlight. Then the Soot-Coat Man steps into the aisle and cuts off the path, one hand on a rusted blade, eyes fixed on the boots.

The hall goes dead quiet. Chairs stop creaking. The Auctioneer freezes behind the block, caught between selling and surviving.

The clerk tightens both hands around the tray, hovering at the edge of Jax’s reach. A few bidders lean back, wary now, as if the next word might turn the room.

Jax drives a shoulder into the Soot-Coat Man and the blockage breaks. The man stumbles sideways, boots scraping stone, and the aisle opens with a sharp gasp from the benches.

The clerk flinches but holds the tray out. Jax snatches the stamped chit and the verified claim on the boots before anyone can think better of it.

A murmur ripples through the hall. Several bidders lean back. The Auctioneer lifts the gavel, not striking, just readying the room to obey.

The Soot-Coat Man plants himself again, but the crowd is against him now. He notices it, and his blade hand loosens a fraction.

Jax slides the coin bag forward and drops the price into the clerk’s tray with a heavy, bright clatter. The stamped chit goes with it, flat and final.

The clerk’s nervous hands hover over the tray, then settle. Wax tablet, chit, and coin all line up as proof the hall cannot ignore.

The man in soot-dark cloth does not step forward. His weight shifts back, just enough to show the aisle is no longer his.

A few benches creak as bodies relax. The ringed woman folds her hands, sharp-eyed, while the clerk draws the tray close and the auction block is claimed by silence.