The Reputation Bar had been a comforting abstraction, a quantification of his increasing sway. But the reality of leadership, Elian was discovering, was dirtier and far more painful than any System interface could convey. It was one thing to guide a widow through a legal maze or to help a tailor find her mark. It was one thing to be responsible for the impressionable, malleable nature of the young men who had begun to look to him not just for strategy, but for their own moral compass.
The problem started with Chike, the more openly ambitious of the two young weavers. The success of their new, independent workshop had been immediate and exhilarating. Orders for their authentic, story-backed designs trickled in, then flooded in. But the pace was not enough for Chike. The ghost of poverty wa
