Chapter 108: What the Ring Was For

Chapter 108: Chapter 108: What the Ring Was For

Aris called from the Kingsgate at nine the next morning. Donald put her on the speaker in the small room behind the Council Chamber, where he and Harrow had spent the night going through old Council files.

"The bid is real," Aris said. "Taeyang Holdings has filed it with the Westmark market board. Four billion credits for a controlling stake in TIG."

"They can’t get a controlling stake," Donald said. "My holding company owns ninety-two percent. The other eight percent is all that’s on the market."

"I know. So does Taeyang. That’s what’s strange." Papers rustled on her end. "Four billion for eight percent is ten times what that eight percent is worth. Nobody pays that. Not even a giant."

Harrow was sitting across the table with a cup of tea in both hands. He looked ten years younger than he had the night before, and very tired.

"They’re not trying to buy it," he said. "They want everyone to look at the bid."

"Why?" Aris asked.

"Because that’s how he works," Harrow said. "One move, two purposes. The bid is loud. Everyone in the market is shouting about it. The newspapers, the other Guilds, your own people. Meanwhile, something quieter is happening somewhere else."

"Where?" Donald said.

Harrow didn’t answer at once. He was frowning at his own hands.

Donald closed his eyes and reached down with [Anchor Sense], the way he had a dozen times since he’d bought the lock. He wanted to see the anchor under the Hall lying still. He wanted to see 61%.

[Dimensional Tear Anchor Detected.]

[Location: 220 meters below Council Square.]

[Resonance: 63.1%]

[Rate: +1.5% per day.]

His eyes snapped open.

"It’s waking again," he said.

Harrow set down his cup.

"That’s not possible," he said. "You hold the seventh lock. I watched you buy it."

"I do. Look."

Donald used [Arcane Reading] and pushed it down through the floor, through two levels of stone, into the ring of runes under the Council Chamber. It came apart in his vision the way it had the day before. Seven locks, side by side.

The seventh keyhole was gold. Steady and bright.

Five more were silver.

And the first one, the keyhole that belonged to the First Seat, was dark.

---

Harrow worked it out before Donald finished explaining. His face went white.

"Breaker of Chains," he said. "It broke the ring."

"And everything else that was binding you," Donald said quietly.

"My Council oath." Harrow put both hands flat on the table. "I swore it twenty-two years ago. On the Ward. It tied the first lock to my core. When your title came over me last night, it didn’t only break Paimon’s pact. It broke every oath I’ve ever sworn." He let out a breath that shook. "I’ve been sitting in the First Seat all night holding nothing."

"Aris," Donald said. "Are you still there?"

"I’m here," Aris said. Her voice had gone tight.

"Find out how long it takes the Council to elect a new First Seat."

"Three days by law," Harrow said, before she could answer. "If the seat is vacant. And it is."

He stood up and went to the window. Outside, the morning light lay on Council Square, and on the seven towers, and on the people walking across the stone with no idea what was under their feet.

"He knew," Harrow said. "He knew what your title would do. He spoke through me in front of the whole Council so that I’d have no choice but to run to you. And the moment I signed your contract, my lock went dark." He turned back from the window. His voice was very low. "He never needed to buy your Guild, Investor. He only needed you to buy me."

Donald sat very still.

Everything you can buy, I can buy back.

Paimon hadn’t bought anything. He had let Donald do the buying, and turned the purchase against him.

[Valuation Eye]

Donald looked at the problem the way the System had taught him to look at everything. Assets. Liabilities. Cost.

The first lock was empty. It could be filled in two ways. Someone outside TIG could swear the oath. Or he could buy it.

"Can anyone in my Guild swear it?" he asked.

"No," Harrow said. "Not with your title on them. The Ward will slide off them the way it slid off you."

"Then I buy it."

He reached through the floor with [Hostile Takeover]. He didn’t trigger it. He only let the System show him the price.

[Target: Council Ward, First Lock (S-Rank)]

[Status: Unheld.]

[Appraised Value: 7,200,000 System Credits.]

[Current Balance: 410,000 System Credits.]

[Insufficient Funds.]

Seven million two hundred thousand. More than the seventh lock had cost, because the first was the oldest and the strongest.

He had four hundred and ten thousand. At a hundred and fifty thousand a day from the golem miners, it would take him forty-five days to save it.

The anchor would wake in twenty-five.

"How much?" Harrow asked, watching his face.

"Seven point two million."

"And you have?"

"Not that."

Aris spoke from the tablet. "Donald. Your TIG shares just jumped thirty percent on the Taeyang bid. Your ninety-two percent is worth more this morning than it has ever been. If you sold even a fraction of one percent of it at today’s price..."

"I’d be selling a piece of my Guild into a market that Paimon is watching," Donald said. "And whoever buys that two percent becomes my partner."

"Then choose who buys it," Aris said. "Don’t sell it on the open market. Sell it to someone you trust. Privately. Today."

Donald looked across the table at Harrow.

Harrow shook his head. "Not me. Everything I own was bought with Paimon’s help for twenty-two years. The Association will freeze my accounts by tonight. I’m worth less than you are this morning, Investor."

"Then who?"

Before Harrow could answer, someone knocked at the door.

It opened before either of them said come in. Lady Constance Reed stood in the doorway in her dark blue Council robe, with her gray hair pinned up and a thin leather folder under her arm.

"I heard the First Seat went dark," she said. "Some of us still check the locks every morning." She came in and shut the door behind her. "I also heard you’re short seven million credits."

Donald stared at her. "How?"

"I’m an Oracle, Investor," Lady Reed said. "Hearing things is my job." She set the leather folder on the table and sat down across from him. "The Reed Guild has eighty years of savings and no debts. I’ve never once sat on the Council because someone bought me the chair. I’m not wearing anyone’s ring." She folded her hands on top of the folder. "And I would very much like to make an investment of my own."

Donald looked at her with [Valuation Eye].

[Target: Lady Constance Reed]

[Class: Oracle (A-Rank)]

[Level: 77]

[Status: Calm. Calculating. Honest.]

[Note: No bindings. No hidden debts.]

"What kind of investment?" he asked.

Lady Reed smiled for the first time.

"A tenth of one percent of your Guild," she said. "At today’s price, it’s worth a little more than you need. And a seat on your board." She tapped the folder. "Because I’ve read the same Council files Harrow has, and I know there are thirty-one of these anchors in the world. Somebody is going to have to hold all those locks, Investor. I’d like to be standing next to the person who can buy them."