The test came faster than Mercer expected, barely two weeks after Isla's careful hesitation on her garden balcony.
A dispute erupted between two merchant guilds over control of a newly discovered mineral deposit outside the city's northern boundary, tensions escalating quickly enough that both sides brought armed workers to the contested site, threatening violence that could spiral badly if left unaddressed. The regent's emergency authority would have allowed Mercer to intervene immediately, dispatching watch forces to separate the parties and impose a temporary resolution without full council consultation.
He felt the old pull toward exactly that kind of swift, unilateral action.
Instead, he called an emergency council session, waiting the additional hours required to gather the full b
