The whispers started small, carried on the wind like smoke from a dying fire. You heard them in the market square, over the creak of cart wheels and the call of traders; you heard them at the edge of the fields, where men leaned on their scythes and spoke low when they thought no one was listening; you heard them late at night around hearth fires, when the doors were bolted and the dark felt thick enough to hold secrets. They said Kael had never meant to share power at all — that he had only broken the old keepers so he could take their place, that he was gathering strength in secret, that the gold we had found was already being hoarded in hidden vaults to fund his crown and his army. They said the charter was nothing but a lie to lull everyone into obedience, that every act of kindness wa
