Mercer brought Varyn inside immediately, calling for Isla and sending word for Orlen before the warehouse clock had finished striking the hour. Elena, predictably, refused to be excused from the conversation, and after a brief, silent exchange with Isla, Mercer relented, recognizing that whatever threat approached would likely touch his daughter's life regardless of whether he shielded her from the earliest warning.
"Tell us everything," Isla said, once they'd settled in Mercer's private office, Varyn accepting a cup of tea with hands that still trembled slightly from exhaustion.
"His name, before his death and return, was Aurelio Vance," Varyn began. "A moneylender in a southern port city, murdered by a consortium of debtors who'd grown tired of his terms. He returned, as we all do, wit
