Chapter 241: Need Ring

As the inner ring began to glow, the need offers across Cinderhold appeared as fire, fire that promised heat from the grain in your kitchen, fire that promised relief from burns at your local clinic, fire that promised safety in your home at night, and fire that promised to guard the streets you walked after dark, and every one of those offers had one thing in common.

THE CROWN WILL TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

Maelor was joined with the need ring, and he spoke through every fire in the city. "People need different things, and there will never be enough to go around. Someone has to decide what to give away and what to keep. I’m only making that decision survivable."

Austin Veyron could feel the needs of Cinderhold, hunger, cold, sickness, and fear, and DEVOUR wanted the need ring because it held all of those things, because if he devoured it, Maelor would no longer be able to control it, but every reason the people of Cinderhold had to live would pass through him, and he would have to keep all of them.

"Name it," Veyra said to him.

"The need ring."

"And what would it make?"

"The person everyone who’s hungry would have to wait on."

"Then smaller," Sable said, holding a thin line of white light against the inner ring. "Take the claim that owns the needs, not the needs."

Tessa opened more channels on the relays. "All wards, please read what your offer says, and then read what’s available to you right now."

They began to speak through the channels one by one.

"Our offer says the lower ward can have heat in exchange for the ration route," Tova said first. "We also have coal at the storehouse, grain that can be shared, and the route from the west pass that’s carrying food."

"Our offer says the clinic can have fire that will help with burns," Velis said next. "But we have fire we can make by hand, two healers traveling through the city, and heat cloth stored in the north storage."

"Our offer will give homes warmth in exchange for their private valve keys," Ferrin reported. "But there are other options as well. We can make a schedule to rotate the vents, there are three basement vents we know of that can provide heat, and we can set up a fuel pool between neighborhoods."

Not every option would solve the problem, because they all needed more work, more time, and more cooperation from the people of Cinderhold, and that was why Maelor was still able to convince some of them to accept his offer.

A woman appeared on the lower well channel, and her name was Marit, and she was holding a crown contract in front of people who were freezing in their homes. "Our offer will give our block warmth for the night. In return, the crown will own the key to our valve and our route to rations. We have two old women sick with fever. We also have children, and not enough fuel to keep warm."

The channel went quiet, and Austin Veyron wanted to tell her not to accept the offer, that they would fix the heart in time, a promise he could make easily and that would mean nothing if he failed to keep it.

"Name it," Veyra said, already knowing what he was going to say.

"Telling her to wait for us."

"And what would it make?"

"The one who turns her need into his rescue."

"Then smaller," Sable said, looking at Marit on the channel. "Let her know what her options are, and let her make the decision."

Tessa told Marit every option available to her, how much fuel they could get from a fuel pool, how long the cart from the west pass would take to arrive, how much heat cloth the clinic had to spare, and that if they accepted the crown’s offer, they would lose the key to their valve, and Marit took the information and spoke to the people in her block.

"We can accept this contract and lose the key to our valve," Marit told them. "Or we can make a fuel pool from the basements and take the heat cloth from the clinic, and our valve stays a public key. We may not be able to stay warm the whole night."

The people in her block all began to speak, some wanting the security of letting the crown take care of them and others wanting to keep their key public, and it took a long time, but in the end they decided to use the fuel pool and make a schedule for their valve, so that someone was sent to fetch the heat cloth from the clinic and the cart traveling through the west pass was told to stop at the lower well too, and while Marit still held the crown’s contract, she now knew there were other options.

"You let people go without when you could help them," Maelor growled through the need ring.

"We’re deciding what we can give away," Marit told him.

The need ring made more mirrors around the outer chamber of the heart, mirrors that looked like hunger, empty bowls, cold beds, and lights that had gone out, each one with a crown contract at its center.

THE CROWN WILL TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

One of the mirrors attacked Nyra’s barrier field, and Seris struck it with her wings, splitting it in two, and Veyra cut one half down with her good arm while Sable pinned the other to the ground with her shard, and both contracts at their centers broke without harming Cinderhold’s fire lines.

Veyra stepped back beside Austin Veyron afterward, breathing hard, and when he reached over without thinking and steadied her by the elbow on her good side, she let him, and for once she didn’t say she was fine, only stayed there against his hand until her breathing evened out, as though it was easier to be tired when he was the one holding her up.

Austin Veyron saw the contract in the mirror’s center and knew that people did need things, but the crown didn’t own what they needed, because the need ring only made it look that way.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The crown-takes-what-you-need claim. Not the needs, the people, or what the wards have left."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable answered.

Austin Veyron placed his white root chain on the nearest mirror with a contract in it.

DEVOUR opened, and the claim tasted like an empty bowl stamped with a ruler’s seal.

THE CROWN WILL TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

He consumed bowl.

The mirror broke, and every fire offer in Cinderhold lost the contract attached to it, so that the people could now see what was being given to them and how long they could have it, and some rejected the offers while others left them unanswered as they found other ways to keep warm, and some accepted the offer of heat, but made sure their ward knew what they were giving up and when they could change that decision.

Maelor reached further into the need ring and began sending messages of famine to parts of the city that still had food, making people believe they were in need when they weren’t.

Tessa picked up on the false information moving through the relay channels. "There’s still grain in the city, and still heat that can be made."

"He’s making people think they don’t have what they need," Velis said.

The false information traveled through the city faster than the original need offers had, so that people were seeing empty grain carts on their slates while they still had grain in their stores, the clinic fires going out while they were still feeding pressure to the fire wheels, and cold in homes that were being warmed by the fuel pool.

Tova knew she couldn’t reach every ward that was being lied to, so she sent the lower ward’s real counts to the surrounding wards, and they began doing the same, with Velis telling them how much pressure was left in the clinic fire wheels and Ferrin telling them how much heat they could get from their valves, until they were all sharing information with each other, how much coal the bakery had, how much fuel was in the cellars, how long the water route took to travel, and how many clinic beds were open.

Tessa added all of it to the relay channels for the people of Cinderhold to see. "Don’t believe a message just because it comes from a fire. Find out where your grain is, and who controls your valve. Ask who told you that you don’t have enough."

Rin was the first to speak up from the roof, and she sounded thrilled by what she saw. "The bakery below me says it has no more flour. I can see nine bags of flour through the window. I’m letting everyone know."

Veyra let out a short laugh, and Austin Veyron noticed it, because for a second she looked at him the way she looked at Rin, and then she remembered where she was and turned back to the need ring with red on her ears.

Elena spoke next, back to her steady self. "The counts we have at the Grand Meridian match what you’re all finding. We’ll post them on every relay board leading to the salt road. If the heart wants to lie about Cinderhold, it’ll have to lie about us too."

Austin Veyron reached for the slip over his heart, and Sable placed her fingers on the back of his hand and left them there, light and cool, until his own hand stopped shaking.

The need ring could no longer force the people of Cinderhold to believe they were in need, because they could look at what they actually had and compare it to what the heart was telling them, and the inner ring began to crack under all the information that was being given to the people of Cinderhold.

"You’re teaching them to doubt what they feel," Maelor said through the need ring.

"We’re showing them that someone is profiting from what they feel," Austin Veyron said.

A new ring appeared behind the need ring, darker than the rest, with a black ember at the center of the heart.

Nyra looked at it and went pale. "That’s the First Ember, and it’s connected to Austin Veyron’s seed. The need ring was only keeping it locked away."

The First Ember sent out a pulse, and Austin Veyron’s mark began to burn, so that while every offer being made to the people of Cinderhold was failing, the heart now had access to what it truly wanted.