I Copy the Authorities of the Four Calamities

Maren listened without interrupting.

The report the six had brought her was simple. Rurik had once served the Empire. He had admitted it without hesitation. He had explained why he left, what he had done while he served, and what he believed needed to happen now.

None of that erased fifteen years.

When Vane finished, Maren remained seated behind the rough wooden table, her hands folded together.

"So," she said at last, "you believe him."

Vane shook his head.

"I believe he believes what he told us."

Maren's eyes narrowed slightly.

Isole answered before Vane could elaborate.

"That distinction matters."

Maren leaned back.

"And do you think he's lying?"

"No," Isole said. "We found no clear indication of it."

"That isn't the same as trust."

"No."

The answer seemed to satisfy her more than certainty would have.

Maren looked toward the doorway. Beyond it, the town remained divided by the barricade that had shaped daily life for years. Even from here, the existence of the wall felt almost physical. Every movement around it carried an old caution.

"He may be telling you the truth," Maren said. "That still leaves the possibility that he's wrong. People can be sincere and still become dangerous."

"Agreed," Isole said.

Maren studied her.

"You're very comfortable with uncertainty."

"I prefer it to false certainty."

A faint breath escaped Maren. Almost a laugh, though there was little humor in it.

"That may be why you're still here."

Vane rose when the conversation ended.

Maren did not ask them to convince her.

She did not ask them to convince her to forgive Rurik, either.

She only said, "Give me time."

The six left.

Across the town, Rurik received much the same report.

He stood with his arms folded, listening as Ashe explained Maren's position.

"She doesn't trust you," Ashe said.

"I assumed that."

"She believes you might be honest."

"That's progress."

"She also thinks you might be wrong."

Rurik gave a small shrug.

"She's allowed."

Ashe studied him.

"You're taking this well."

"I've had fifteen years to practice hearing it."

There was a pause.

Rurik glanced toward the barricade.

"You know what the problem is?" he asked.

Ashe waited.

"Every year the wall stays up, both sides collect another reason it should remain."

He rubbed a hand across his jaw.

"Someone remembers what happened to their brother. Someone remembers an Imperial uniform. Someone else remembers being called a traitor. Then someone makes a decision because they're frightened, and ten years later people are still using that decision to justify the next one."

He looked back at them.

"Maren won't change because six strangers told her I'm probably sincere."

"No," Vane said.

Rurik smiled faintly.

"I was hoping you'd say that."

He glanced toward the wall again.

"Still worth trying."

"Why?" Mara asked.

Rurik considered the question.

"Because every honest conversation makes the wall a little more expensive to maintain."

Mara tilted her head.

"Expensive?"

"You have to keep feeding it."

She understood.

Every division needed a reason to survive. Every grudge needed reinforcement. Every silence had to be preserved before it became ordinary.

Rurik looked down at his hands.

"I can't tear it down myself."

"No," Vane said.

"But I can stop helping build it."

That was where the conversation ended.

There was no reconciliation.

No agreement.

No sudden understanding between two people carrying fifteen years of history.

For a place that had spent so long divided, perhaps that was the only honest result.

Then Nyx felt something wrong.

She stopped walking.

"What?"

The others looked at her.

Nyx listened.

"The well."

Mara frowned.

"What about it?"

"It's quiet."

They found the shared well near the center of town.

It had been built before the division, back when the two halves had still been one community. Both sides used it. Neither side trusted the other to touch it alone anymore.

Now there was no water.

The bucket came up dry.

For a moment nobody spoke.

Then someone from Maren's side shouted across the square.

"They did it."

A voice answered from behind the barricade.

"Did what?"

"You know what."

Rurik appeared almost immediately.

"What happened?"

"The well is dry."

Rurik looked down into it.

Then he looked across the divide.

"You think we sabotaged it?"

"We know how this works," someone shouted.

Another voice rose behind him.

"And we know how you people think."

Within seconds, the accusation had become an argument.

Years of suspicion required very little fuel.

Vane watched the crowd gather.

Maren emerged from one side.

Rurik stood on the other.

Neither spoke at first.

Valerica walked past them.

"Move."

The command was sharp enough that both sides actually did.

She crouched beside the well, examining the stonework.

Mara joined her.

"Collapsed channel," Valerica said.

Mara looked inside.

"Where?"

"Below the retaining wall."

She touched one section of stone.

"Pressure shifted it."

Maren frowned.

"So the water source itself is fine?"

"Yes."

Rurik stared down at the well.

"Then this wasn't sabotage."

"No," Valerica said.

She stood.

"And you were both about three sentences away from turning an accident into another reason to hate each other."

Silence followed.

Valerica looked from one side to the other.

"You have fifteen years of evidence that suspicion is useful."

Her expression hardened.

"You also have fifteen years of evidence showing you what suspicion costs."

Nobody answered.

An older man from Maren's side stepped forward.

"I can clear the channel."

A young woman from Rurik's side moved at nearly the same time.

"I can help."

They stopped when they realized what the other had said.

Neither withdrew.

They worked together.

It was awkward at first.

They disagreed over where to brace the stones. They passed tools through gaps in the barricade. One held a lantern while the other reached into the channel. Neither trusted the other enough to stop watching.

Still, they worked.

A stone shifted.

Mud spilled free.

Then the water began to move.

A thin stream appeared first.

Then another.

Someone laughed.

It was only a well.

No treaty had been signed.

No one had forgiven anyone.

The wall still stood.

But for a few minutes, the people on both sides watched the same water rise.

Nyx stood quietly beside the others.

Mara glanced at her.

"Well?"

Nyx listened.

"Still complicated."

Mara nodded.

"Good."

They watched the two workers finish clearing the channel.

It was a small thing.

Meridine remained divided, its old wounds untouched and its future uncertain.

But that morning, when something broke, they had fixed it together.

Perhaps that was how the walls would come down.

One small repair at a time.

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