The evening shadows stretched long across the packed gravel of the relay registry yard, chilling the mountain air as twilight settled over the river gorge.
Princess Didi stood beside the weathered stone watering trough, her dark wool cloak drawn close around her shoulders while her silver hair caught the faint crimson light of sunset.
Across the yard, seven surviving municipal clerks and record keepers sat on overturned feed barrels under the watchful guard of four Sixth spearmen.
Didi had ordered the workers separated into three different corners of the compound, ensuring that none of them could compare stories or align their answers under Choral pressure.
She had already questioned two junior scribes whose trembling fingers and evasive glances revealed they had simply stamped whatever papers their superiors set before them.
