Three weeks into his council term, Mercer began noticing a pattern in how Greaves voted. Every proposal Mercer brought forward met with quiet resistance, dressed up in reasonable-sounding objections that somehow always landed on the wrong side of fairness. It took Isla to point it out directly for Mercer to see the shape of it clearly.
"He's building a coalition against you," Isla said, laying out the voting record from the past month across her desk. "Look here. Three votes where Greaves convinced two other councilors to oppose proposals that would have easily passed otherwise."
Mercer studied the pattern, his stomach tightening. "He's still angry about the harbor tax structure."
"It's more than wounded pride at this point," Isla tapped the page. "He's positioning himself as the voice
