The convergence the voice predicted arrived sooner than Mercer expected, in the form of a formal diplomatic request delivered to the council chamber barely two months after the troubling reports from the north first reached Verath Hollow.
"Castellon Drake requests formal trade negotiation," Priest announced, reading the letter aloud to the assembled council. "He proposes a delegation visit within the month, seeking to establish commercial relations between his newly consolidated territory and our own trading networks."
The chamber murmured with uncertainty, several council members clearly aware of the troubling reports about Drake's violent rise to power, uncertain how to balance legitimate commercial opportunity against the moral discomfort of formal relations with someone who'd apparen
