Edmund Ashcroft did not leave Ravenshollow House for three days.
He spent that time reading.
Not books.
People.
The Covenant Archive did not flood his mind with power. Instead, it revealed fragments. Small threads. Half forgotten obligations buried beneath layers of modern legality.
Names surfaced one by one.
Individuals who owed the Ashcrofts favors they believed time had erased.
The system interface hovered silently near the edge of his vision.
[ Scanning Dormant Covenants ]
[ Integrity Level Low ]
[ Viability One Available ]
Edmund focused.
"Show me."
The air shifted.
A single name appeared.
Thomas Hale.
Mid level executive.
Private equity.
Currently drowning.
Edmund frowned slightly.
"That is it."
[ Covenant Tier Minor ]
[ Status Breached Indirectly ]
[ Hale Thomas benefited from Ashcroft intervention thirteen years ago ]
[ Protection expired unresolved ]
Memory surfaced.
His father standing in a quiet office.
A signature.
A delayed bankruptcy that never happened.
Thomas Hale had built his entire career on borrowed time.
Edmund exhaled slowly.
"Where is he."
[ Location Identified Canary Wharf ]
[ Financial Stress Index Critical ]
Edmund dressed carefully. Plain clothes. Nothing expensive. Nothing memorable.
He did not look like a man with power.
He looked like someone already defeated.
That was the point.
The café was quiet. Early afternoon. Mostly empty.
Thomas Hale sat alone at a corner table, tie loosened, hands shaking slightly as he stared at his phone.
Edmund approached calmly.
"Mr Hale."
The man flinched.
"Yes."
Edmund sat down without asking.
"You do not recognize me," Edmund said softly. "But my family knows you very well."
Hale laughed nervously.
"I think you have the wrong person."
Edmund placed a folded document on the table.
It was not legal.
It was older than legality.
Hale's face drained of color.
"That document should not exist," Hale whispered.
"It exists because you do," Edmund replied.
Silence stretched.
"I am not here to threaten you," Edmund continued. "I am here to collect."
Hale swallowed.
"What do you want."
Edmund leaned forward.
"Your silence. Your signature. And when the time comes, your obedience."
Hale's voice shook.
"And if I refuse."
The system pulsed gently.
[ Consequence Projection Available ]
Edmund smiled faintly.
"Then you lose everything by the end of the month."
Hale stared at him.
Then nodded.
The first covenant was restored.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
But permanently.
As Edmund left the café, the system updated.
[ Covenant Restored ]
[ Authority Level Increased ]
[ Phase One Survival Complete ]