The first gold notice named a champion who had fought in Rook's tournament. The second named a debt faction whose contracts Vasa had exposed at the Citadel gate. By the sixth, the notices had joined into one document over District Eight.
It called itself an embassy application. It claimed it would bring neither soldiers nor direct divine descent and would own no city ground. It asked the Surveyor to recognize six willing champion contracts as a foreign presence with protected entry, protected observation, and enforceable diplomatic passage.
"They found a word for control that does not trigger the Citadel rule," Diana said from the relay room. "They are not entering our boundary. They are asking the district to make a boundary for them."
Vasa lay on a clinic cot beside the command table, her hands wrapped to the wrist. She read the visible clauses line by line, then pointed to a section where the document vanished into gold glare.
