Chapter 211: Purchased Votes

All the sealed envelopes on the auction table lit up at once.

Red contract strings crawled out of the seal wax and slipped beneath the water basin. They stretched toward the canal delegates behind the railing and wrapped around their wrists, their ankles, and their route tags, never once making contact with skin.

PURCHASED VOTES BIND WATER.

Asha tugged at one of the red strings attached to her permit tag. "They’re using the debt to make a water contract with the canals."

The lead councilor stood from his seat on the top tier. His blue silk coat glowed in the red light, and he lifted his rod.

"The waters of East Ember now have a purchased contract to represent them," he said. "The buyer now has control over their use."

"That’s wrong," Tessa said. "A purchased contract doesn’t have a face."

The councilor turned to her with open disdain. "We don’t have time to educate every worker on the consequences of our water system."

Austin Veyron felt his anger rise. The whole Blue Merchant council sat above the water basin with their ledgers, their guards, and their seals. He could run across the floor, grab the book in the center, and make sure no more rivers were ever bought with words.

Veyra touched his arm.

"What do you want?"

"The books from the whole council."

"What would that create?"

"Someone with the power of life or death over every contract."

Sable’s crown shard pointed to the red strings. "Then take the claim that turns votes into owned property." ⅇℯ𝚕.

Water shot out of the basin and splattered across the front row of merchant seats.

Water constructs rose from the basin through the glass floor. They were shaped like the canal delegates and made of hot water, ember mist, and envelope paper. Each one held a wax seal in its hand, and steam poured off them as they walked through the room, thick enough to taste.

THE DEBT SPEAKS FOR THE DISTRICT.

One lunged at Asha.

Rin’s claws tore it open, and it burst into steam, then pulled itself back together out of the red water. Tamsin took her place between it and the delegate rail and drove it back from the delegates’ route tags with her spear. Veyra cut a contract string before it could bind another district’s permit.

Ceryn laid out the debt transfers they had managed to recover.

"These numbers don’t make sense," they said. "Every district sold its emergency water rights to pay back loans it doesn’t owe. The loans were based on the merchants’ estimated toll costs, not the actual price of materials."

"And they all sold their right to dispute the purchase to the buyer," Tessa said, pointing at the seals. "The council wrote the vote so no one could ever question it."

The delegates around them began yelling.

"My district never voted to sell our water!"

"I don’t have a repair loan!"

"Our lock crews were never told!"

"Silence." The councilor struck his blue rod against the floor.

The water constructs began to grow, pulling more water up through the cracks in the glass floor.

Nyra lifted the heart shard over the basin, and blue-black light spread across the glass. Through it, she could see past the ritual to a demon woman chained in the water below. Ember scales covered her body, and red-gold hair drifted around her face.

"She’s chained under the basin," Nyra said. "The council is using her water to make the contract."

The demon woman opened her eyes. They glowed bright red, like embers.

"Break the bought contract," she said from beneath the water. "Do not break the canal."

"Do you want us to free you?" Austin Veyron asked.

"Yes," she said. "I just want to choose where my water flows."

The red strings tightened around the permit tags.

Austin Veyron looked at the words that were holding the water constructs together.

THE DEBT SPEAKS FOR THE DISTRICT.

Debt didn’t speak for anyone. It silenced people and wore their route tags as a disguise.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The debt-speaks-for-the-district claim. Not the delegates. Not the water. Not the locks."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron took the white root chain and pressed it against the nearest wax seal.

DEVOUR opened. The claim tasted like a receipt taped over someone’s mouth.

THE DEBT SPEAKS FOR THE DISTRICT.

He consumed speaks.

The water constructs collapsed.

The contract strings fell away from the delegates’ route tags. The envelopes on the table tore open, and the debt inside was revealed. The water was still red, but it no longer spoke for the council.

Asha took her place at the rail.

"East Ember will not accept these contracts. We must have a public vote to decide our water use. These are not our votes."

One by one, the other delegates followed her lead.

"West Ember will not accept."

"Lower Canal will not accept."

"Lock Seven will not accept."

The Blue Merchant broker stood on the auction floor with her blue ledger in her hand. The lead councilor turned to her.

"Uphold your charter."

She looked at the exposed contracts, at the chained demon woman, and at the delegates speaking for themselves.

"My charter is to help manage the trade of goods," she said. "Not to turn people into product."

"Choose," he said.

"I choose to testify."

The room filled with shouting. Merchants yelled from the top tier, and the delegates yelled back. For a moment, no one could hear anything at all.

The Blue Merchant guards stood at the delegate rail, unsure of what to do. They’d had their orders while the votes were sealed. Now the votes were open, their own broker had refused to uphold the contract, and they didn’t know what they were guarding anymore.

Asha used it to her advantage. "All district workers, state your lock conditions. Do not follow private commands. If your water is getting hot, tell the next district what you need."

The delegates began pulling out their route sheets. One said their east gate was failing. Another said they were running low on cool water at Lock Seven. A third said their repair boat was stuck behind a line of merchant workers. The room filled with work instead of vote selling.

Tessa copied their reports onto the public wall. Ceryn noted which locks would fail first if the councilor raised the heat. The Blue Merchant broker added the charter records she had been told to keep hidden.

"There are three vents in the vault," she said. "If the councilor closes all of them, he can cause an emergency in every province. If we keep even one open, the lock network can stay alive until we come up with a plan."

"The demon is sinking lower into the water," Nyra said, holding the heart shard over the basin drain. "She still has her water, but the vault is trying to take it as a fire source."

Austin Veyron looked at the wall of lock reports. He could break into the vault by himself, and it would be quicker. But it could also crack the heat lines under the canals and hurt the very workers who were helping them.

Veyra knew what he was thinking and didn’t have to ask. He answered anyway.

"I want to break through it."

"What would that create?"

"Danger for people we can’t even see."

"Then we break through where the workers can witness it." Sable placed her shard against the wall map.

Asha pointed to a maintenance tunnel behind the delegate rail. "That will get you to the first vent. Take two lock workers and let them choose the settings. We’ll stay here and keep the district updates coming."

The councilor reached under the auction table and pulled out a black key. "Then this conclave has served no purpose."

He drove the key into the floor, and the red water rushed away, taking the demon woman with it. A vault door ground open behind the council seats, leading down to the Ember Canal. Writing burned across the walls.

EMERGENCY BUYER REQUIRED.

The councilor turned and stepped through the vault door.

"If there is no buyer, your locks will burn," he said from the doorway. "Enjoy your voices while your provinces dry up."

The vault door slammed shut, and the canal hall shook. Debris fell from the red stone ceiling.

Beneath the glass basin, the heat rose through the lock network. Water began to steam in canals miles away from Cindervale, and the air over the city shimmered with heat.

Asha looked at the route sheets, then at Austin Veyron.

"He has the remaining product and the ember core. If he makes it to the canal vault, he can sell every lock as an emergency."

Austin Veyron looked at the vault door.

He wanted to break through it, tear through the walls, devour everything waiting below, and make sure no councilor could ever hold a route hostage again.

Veyra watched him.

"What do you want?"

"To own the vault so no one can lock it again."

"What would that create?"

"It would make me the next buyer."

"Then we’ll open it for everyone who has to live with the water." Sable lifted her shard toward the burning writing.

The Ember Canal vault began to glow red.