Word of Drake's shift arrived gradually over the following weeks, fragments of information reaching Mercer through merchant traffic and careful diplomatic correspondence. Drake had begun releasing political prisoners held under questionable circumstances. He'd reduced the harsh taxation that had funded his earlier military consolidation. He'd even, according to one particularly surprising merchant's report, publicly apologized for the border attack years earlier, acknowledging his own role in ordering it rather than maintaining the fiction of unauthorized subordinate action.
"He's actually doing it," Isla said, reviewing the accumulated reports with genuine surprise. "Genuine reform, not simply calculated political theater."
"I hoped he would," Mercer said. "Though I confess, I didn't fu
