It's been several months since the Kruel incident occurred and the Vel'kai planet had changed in ways that couldn't be undone.
The markets that had reopened three days after the evacuation ended, the ones where Vel'kai had returned to their stalls with the stubborn determination of people who understood that routine was how you survived catastrophe, those markets were quiet now. Not closed. The stalls were there. The goods were there. The Vel'kai moved through them because they had been told to keep moving through them, because a planet that looked functional from orbit was easier to run than one that looked broken, and One understood that.
The difference was who was watching.
There were enforcers everywhere. And not just ordinary ones, One's enforcers.
