Help does not vanish.
It is reclassified.
⸻
The notice arrives just after noon, delivered not by hawk or rider but by sound.
A bell.
Not loud.
Not urgent.
Measured.
It rings three times from the junction stones along the southern routes, each tone carrying with it a new authority that pretends it has always been there.
Jason feels it before he reads it.
“That’s bad,” he says quietly.
Zane looks up from where he’s kneeling beside a cookfire, helping an elder steady a pot with one hand while the heir sits bundled against his chest, fascinated by steam.
“What changed,” Zane asks.
Jason swallows and unfolds the paper a runner presses into his hands.
CORRIDOR AMENDMENT 7A
UNAUTHORIZED AID DISTRIBUTION IS NOW SUBJECT TO PENALTY
AID PROVIDED TO NON-PARTICIPATING ZONES SHALL BE CON
