Jiangnan was loud in the way it always had been.
Not chaotic in a bad way — just alive.
The harbor stretched wide with ships from dozens of sectors docked side by side, their hulls reflecting the soft green glow of the Great Needle above. The Gutter smelled like a mix of food stalls, wet wood, engine oil, and salt from the water cutting through the docks. It was the kind of smell that didn’t try to be clean or perfect. It just told you people were here. Living.
The Salty Nut settled into pier seven with a gentle hiss of cooling metal.
Everything after that happened quickly.
Shen was taken first — strapped onto a stretcher before he could argue, though he tried anyway, complaining about the angle and how “dramatic” everyone was being. Elara didn’t even come to the dock proper; she spli
