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Colemenoport

Offices of the

Tree-and-Dragon Trade Mission


Boom!

Ribbons of brilliant light filled the room, swirled, and faded.

Padi yos’Galan was gone.

Jes looked to Dyoli and Mar Tyn.

“Do either of you know where she has gone, and if she requires our aid?”

“I believe she may have been called to assist Tekelia vesterGranz,” Dyoli said. “They share a . . . significant bond, as I have Seen. Whether our assistance is required, I cannot say. However—”

She pulled a portable comm out of her pocket.

Jes raised a hand.

“The trader’s business is, of course, the trader’s business. In the meanwhile, we have our own in hand.

“Dyoli, would you please check in with our contractors at the workroom? Mar Tyn, I will require your assistance in researching the Guild guidelines.”

* * *

Dyoli had been gone for some time, and Mar Tyn was three screens into port audit exception clauses, when the door chime sounded and the light flashed twice.

Jes did not look up from her screen, where he expected she was pursuing an even more complex search through trade law. Mar Tyn therefore marked his place, rose, and crossed the room to answer the door.

The woman thus revealed was sharp-faced and arrogant, her hands glittering with gemstones.

Mar Tyn’s feet moved, shifting him to the side of the door, just as the woman stepped forward.

“I,” she said, her voice as hard as the shine of her rings, “am Zandir kezlBlythe. I will speak with Qe’andra dea’Tolin.”

She crossed the threshold, and spared him one hard glance as she passed.

“Go away,” she said.

He felt a jolt, as if a hard hand had struck him in the shoulder, but his feet were already moving, putting him on the far side of the door.

His feet kept moving. He made no effort to change their direction, but he did look over his shoulder.

The door to the qe’andra’s office was closed, and the red light that meant “do not disturb” was lit.


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Framed