Authority does not shatter all at once.
It fractures.
⸻
The first crack appears in a place Corvin Hale does not monitor closely enough.
A regional compliance officer refuses to sign a sanction order.
Not loudly.
Not heroically.
He simply leaves the line blank.
Jason learns about it from a whisper-thread that shouldn’t exist, carried through three intermediaries and a healer who still believes in handwriting.
“He didn’t resign,” Jason says, staring at the note. “He didn’t defect. He just… stopped.”
Zane looks up from where he’s repairing a hinge near the gate, the heir seated nearby, tapping two stones together with intense concentration.
“Stopped what,” Zane asks.
“Being useful,” Jason replies.
Zane nods once.
“That’s how it starts.”
⸻
The Ledger Courts issue no announcemen
