Don Esteban Valcárcel halts at the threshold and sweeps the hall with a hard look. The chamber is not a court at all, but a knot of silk-clad merchants already seated where only the governor's people should be.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
Who admitted you here?
A warder tightens his grip on the door, while colder air spills in around the opening panels. Swanga stands just behind Esteban, boxed by a narrow lane of halberds and polished boots.
The Merchant in Crimson
We have business enough to warrant the room, magistrate. Your seal is not the only seal in this port.
Esteban's jaw goes rigid. Several merchants lift folded papers, tax chits, and stamped petitions, all of them arranged to look legitimate and all of them ready to drown out his authority.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
Then speak plainly, and quickly. I did not come to find my hearing stolen.
The merchants turn their attention toward Swanga's proposal at once, appraising him like cargo they mean to undervalue.
✓ Quest Accepted
Outmaneuver the merchants at the governor’s hall
“Hold my proposal high to catch the light and command their attention.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +2)
Swanga lifts the proposal into the lamp glow, and the motion is small but certain. The silk-clad merchants stop talking over one another to look at the seal instead of the man holding it.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
At last. Let them see the proper document in the proper hand.
The Merchant in Crimson
Mm. He knows how to make paper look expensive.
A few heads in the benches angle toward Swanga, curious now, measuring. Esteban straightens beside him, reclaiming a sliver of the room with the sight of the raised seal.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
Read it, then. In full. I will hear which of you came here to conduct business, and which came to smother it.
The merchant in crimson leans back, smile thinning, while his neighbors glance between the proposal and the magistrate. The hall grows quieter than before, but not kinder.
The Merchant in Crimson
Very well. Let us see whether his petition can survive daylight.
The proposal stays high, the seal bright against the candle smoke, and the merchants are forced to make room for it.
“I demand the merchants read it aloud”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -2)
Swanga
Read it aloud, all of it.
The room stills on the order. Swanga does not press forward, he simply holds the paper steady until the nearest merchant takes the first breath to resist it.
The Merchant in Crimson
Very well. If this is to be a public hearing, then let it be public.
He breaks the seal’s silence with two fingers, and the scratch of paper sounds loud in the hush. Heads turn from face to face, but the words now belong to the hall, not the merchants.
The Merchant in Crimson
By authority of the governor's hall, this petition is presented for review... and any objection to its form must be stated here, before all present.
A few merchants exchange tight looks. Esteban’s mouth eases into a thin, satisfied line, but the cost lands at once, the proposal’s edge is now exposed to every listening rival in the chamber.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
Good. Now speak plainly, and let them answer in the open.
Quest Complete
Outmaneuver the merchants at the governor’s hall
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary