SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

The rumor reached Nerith early. One of her clerks brought it into her office with requests for clarification from several administrators. Lyren had personally brought Trafalgar du Morgain into Meraval, and Nerith had spent weeks copying restricted records from Nyssara’s household archive. By morning, those facts were being repeated together through the castle.

Nerith read the notes and placed them beside her breakfast. Her clerk remained in front of the desk, waiting.

”Do they want a denial?”

”They want to know what your response is.”

”Then give them one. I copied the records. I gave information from them to Lord Morgain. If anybody wants to know why, tell them they may ask me directly.”

The clerk glanced down at the notes again, checking whether she meant every request. Nerith gave him no reason to think otherwise.

”All of them?”

”All of them.”

By the time she left her office, Trafalgar had become impossible to separate from the succession. Heirs, faction heads and administrators stopped him in corridors, asked what he had found and argued over what his presence meant. Nerith had helped create that situation, and pretending otherwise would only make her look frightened of it.

She crossed the administrative wing alone and took the western stairs toward the Canal Houses offices. Two people stopped her on the way with questions about the archive, and she gave both the same answer she had given her clerk.

Maela Sorrel received her in a meeting room overlooking one of the inner canals. Four Canal House heads were already there, representing families hit hardest by the breach.

Maela closed the door herself and took the chair at the head of the table. She left the papers in front of her untouched.

”You’ve made my morning difficult.”

”I imagine Kesh made it difficult before I did.”

Maela’s expression remained unchanged. She went straight to the reason Nerith had been called there.

”Did you copy your mother’s restricted household records?”

”Yes.”

”Did you give Trafalgar du Morgain information from them?”

”Yes.”

One of the house heads leaned forward. ”And you don’t see a problem with an heir giving restricted Myrrhvale records to a Morgain during a succession?”

”I see several problems with it.” Nerith folded her hands on the table. ”I also see a larger one. My mother was killed two years ago, and this house spent those two years arguing over which heir benefited while the records around her death were being watched, removed and ignored.”

The canal outside could be heard through the glass during the silence that followed. Nerith waited a moment before continuing.

”I copied them because I couldn’t remove the originals. I gave Trafalgar information because he was investigating outside interference and because our own investigations had failed. You can condemn the method if you want. I won’t pretend I didn’t use it.”

The warehouse representative looked toward Maela. ”That still leaves Lyren. He brings Morgain in, you give him records, and suddenly the foreign observer is digging through The Tide.”

”Then ask Lyren why he brought him,” Nerith said. ”I’m responsible for what I did.”

Maela moved one report aside before speaking again. Her next question was quieter.

”What did those records produce?”

”Missing attendance pages from the first months of my mother’s illness. Medical records that never reached a clear diagnosis. Halvic Meer leaving Meraval three days after her death under special Tide authorisation.”

The warehouse representative stopped leaning back in his chair. He had spent the last week arguing over compensation with officers from the same fleet.

Maela watched Nerith. ”And now Kesh is circulating the fact that you supplied those records.”

”Yes.”

”Why would he do that?”

”Because Trafalgar questioned him.”

Nerith gave them Meer’s departure, Kesh’s signature and the meeting at the pumping works, leaving out anything she did not personally know. Nobody interrupted until she finished.

Maela pushed her chair back slightly. ”The second ring closure has cost my houses four operating sites. We lost warehouse stock, contracts, freight records and access to routes we paid concessions for years ago.”

”The fleet has emergency authority over recovery schedules now,” one of the others added. ”Every delayed Canal House shipment waits behind whatever The Tide gives priority.”

”We’re still paying crews who can’t reach their own buildings,” the warehouse representative said.

Maela looked at Nerith again. ”I stayed neutral because every heir wanted something from us, and neutrality was cheaper than choosing wrong. That changes now.”

Nerith kept quiet and let her continue. Maela had already reached the part that mattered.

”The fleet was supposed to protect the port. A Tide commander took men underground without orders. Pressure crossings were closed in advance. A section of the city was breached, and now the same fleet controls the recovery of everything inside it.”

Maela rested both hands on the table. ”I don’t need Trafalgar du Morgain to tell me that arrangement is unacceptable.”

The warehouse representative turned toward her. ”You’re choosing Nerith?”

”I’m choosing the candidate who has spent two years trying to find out who killed Nyssara instead of asking my houses to accept another six weeks of losses quietly.”

Maela returned her attention to Nerith. ”Canal Houses will support your claim.”

Nerith had expected bargaining first. Concessions or port rights would have made the decision easier to anticipate, but Maela continued before she could respond.

”This isn’t permanent loyalty. If you become Matriarch and decide the fleet can operate without oversight, we’ll have this conversation again from opposite sides of the table. For now, staying neutral protects nobody I represent.”

”Understood.”

”I also want Canal House inspectors present for every recovery operation involving our property.”

”I’ll support it.”

”And every record recovered from those buildings gets copied before it goes anywhere else.”

Nerith considered the request before answering. After everything that had happened, it was reasonable.

”If Ithanne approves the procedure, yes.”

Maela gave a short nod and gathered the reports in front of her. The meeting was finished.

”Then we have an agreement.”

Nerith left the Canal Houses offices less than an hour later. The rumors about Trafalgar were still moving through the castle, and by evening more people would have heard them.

Kesh had succeeded in linking Lyren and Nerith to a foreign observer. He had also forced every faction to decide whether Trafalgar’s information became less important because of where it came from.

Maela Sorrel had made her decision based on the losses in the second ring. The Canal Houses had paid enough for neutrality.