Mara POV
The negotiation took three days because I was careful.
I spent my entire life being careful and I was not going to stop now simply because the stakes were higher than anything I negotiated before.
Calista gave me the framework.
The framework was simple.
Nerissa went back to Obsidian Keep. In our terms,in a way that established a relationship rather than charity,in a way that produced something tangible for the family that housed and fed and tolerated her for eleven years while she destroyed everything she touched.
Calista used the word goodwill. I was using the word gold.
Those were different words for the same transaction depending on which end of it you were standing at.
The first contact was through Dorian Vane's supply network,the merchant who moved between Red Claw t
