"Good." He stood up, tucking the papers into his coat. "A word of advice, Siren. The game you’re playing has more players than you realize. Lady Vex isn’t the top of the food chain. She’s not even close. Be careful who you make enemies of."
"And who you make friends with?"
"That too." He walked toward the door, then paused and looked back. "One more thing. The Grand General you’ve been working with. Sera."
"What about her?"
"She’s not as alone as she thinks she is. There are people in Lumen who remember what her family did for the Sirens, back before the Elders consolidated power. If things go badly at that council meeting tomorrow, there might be options she hasn’t considered."
"What kind of options?"
"The kind that require someone willing to do the things she can’t." His eyes met Nacho’s across the room. "The kind of things you seem very good at."
Then he was gone, swallowed by the shadows of his own establishment.
Nacho sat alone at the table, turning the Rat King’s words over in his mind. More players. More angles. More complications to a situation that was already too complex.
But also more opportunities.
He stood up and headed for the door, his thoughts already racing ahead to the next challenge. Tomorrow, Sera would face the Elder Council with evidence that could destroy Korith and expose the Consortium’s influence in Lumen. Tonight, forty rescued Sirens would begin their journey home.
And somewhere in between, a former debt collector would have to decide just how far he was willing to go to protect the people he’d started to care about.
The answer, he suspected, was further than anyone expected.
Including himself.
***
The news arrived three days later, carried by a runner who looked like he hadn’t slept since leaving Lumen.
Nacho was in the Copper Kettle’s back room, helping Mira sort through the last of the supplies the Rat King’s people had delivered for the rescued Sirens. The transport ship would leave at dusk, and there were still a hundred small details to manage before forty traumatized women could safely begin the journey home.
The runner burst through the door without knocking, his chest heaving and his eyes wild with something that took Nacho a moment to identify.
Relief. Pure, unfiltered relief.
"It worked." The words came out between gasps. "The council meeting. Korith’s been arrested."
Mira dropped the bundle of blankets she’d been holding. Her hands flew to her mouth, tears already streaming down her cheeks before she could stop them.
Nacho stood very still, processing.
"Tell me everything."
The runner’s name was Sev. He was seventeen, one of Sera’s personal messengers, chosen for his speed and his discretion. He’d been present at the council meeting that morning, stationed outside the doors with orders to bring word the moment a verdict was reached.
What he described sounded less like a political proceeding and more like an execution.
Sera had walked into that chamber with the evidence Nacho had gathered, every document recreated from his perfect memory and organized into a damning narrative that left no room for interpretation. The shipping routes. The payment records. The correspondence between Korith and Thorne Shipping. The lists of Siren women sold to Imperial buyers, complete with dates and amounts and the names of the buyers themselves.
Voss had gone pale reading through the first stack of papers. The other Elders had started shouting over each other before Sera finished presenting the second. Elder Maren, the one who’d always been on their side, had demanded an immediate vote to strip Korith of her position before any more damage could be done.
Korith herself had tried to deny everything, of course. She’d claimed the documents were forgeries, that Sera had manufactured evidence to destroy a political rival, that the accusations were part of some elaborate conspiracy against her.
Nobody believed her.
The evidence was too specific, too detailed, too obviously genuine for anyone to dismiss. When Voss pulled out a letter bearing Korith’s personal seal, one that authorized a shipment of "specialized cargo" to a buyer in the Imperial capital, she’d stopped talking entirely.
The vote was unanimous. Four to zero, with Korith herself abstaining because she was no longer permitted to participate. She’d been taken into custody before the sun reached its peak, her assets seized and her allies scrambling to distance themselves from her like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
"The other two hostile Elders?" Nacho asked.
"Cut ties immediately. Elder Thessan woke up long enough to denounce Korith as a traitor to the Siren people. Elder Korith’s former allies are falling over themselves to prove they had nothing to do with her schemes." Sev’s lip curled with something like contempt. "Cowards, all of them."
"Smart cowards. The ones who don’t adapt quickly are the ones who end up in cells."
"Grand General Sera kept her rank?"
"More than that. Voss proposed expanding her authority to include oversight of internal security matters. Said something about how the existing structures had failed to catch Korith’s betrayal." Sev’s exhaustion seemed to lift slightly as he spoke, replaced by a kind of fierce pride. "She’s stronger now than she was before all this started."
Mira grabbed Nacho’s arm, her grip tight enough to leave bruises if he’d been anyone else. "Does this mean they’ll investigate what happened to the people who were sold? My mother, my sister, the others who were shipped out before you found us?"
"That’s already happening. Grand General Sera authorized a full inquiry into all of Korith’s activities. Every Siren who was trafficked through her network will be tracked down and recovered." Sev’s voice softened slightly. "She said to tell you specifically that she hasn’t forgotten her promise."
The words hung in the air for a moment before Nacho nodded once, sharply.
"Good. Tell her I’ll be ready to move when she needs me."
Sev bowed, the motion quick and professional, and then he was gone, sprinting back toward whatever portal or messenger route would carry him home to Lumen.
Mira still hadn’t let go of Nacho’s arm.
"Thank you." Her voice cracked on the second word. "I don’t know how to, I can’t even begin to express what this means to me."