Chương 19: Chapter 18: Closing the Book

The old boathouse looked better than it had a month ago. Not good. Better. The roof no longer sagged inward quite so aggressively. Several broken windows had been replaced with mismatched panes scavenged from somewhere in the Dock Ward. The warped dock outside had been reinforced enough that walking across it no longer felt like negotiating with gravity. But the place still leaned toward the canal like a drunk trying not to fall over.

Jack stood near the railing overlooking the water beneath the structure while evening settled over Greyhaven. Lantern light reflected across the canal in fractured streaks of gold and orange. Somewhere deeper in the ward, men shouted while unloading cargo before nightfall. Business continued. It always did. Behind him, the boathouse carried the noise of people working. Their people now. Not many. Enough. Enough to keep up with the endless requests for help coming from the Dock Ward.

Enough to make failure more complicated. Breakwater Holdings had grown faster than any of them anticipated after the storm response. Too many people now associated them with reliability. With stability. With help. And everything had a cost. Food. Wages. Repairs. Materials. Registration fees. Tools. Every improvement to the boathouse cost money they barely had. Every worker they hired created another responsibility. And responsibility accumulated faster than profit.

Seraphine arrived carrying a ledger beneath one arm. Aldric followed shortly after with Kael, who somehow looked even more exhausted than the rest of them. Seraphine dropped the ledger onto a nearby crate hard enough to send dust into the air.

"We have a problem." Jack glanced toward the book.

"I assumed that from the dramatic entrance."

"I'm serious." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"So am I." She ignored that.

"We're bleeding coin." Jack already knew. It had been inevitable.

"How bad?" Seraphine folded her arms.

"We're spending more than we're bringing in. The reconstruction contracts helped, but material costs keep climbing and half the Dock Ward can't actually afford the repairs they need."

"Meaning we discounted the work."

"Meaning," she corrected, "you discounted the work. We're fortunate half the people here are willing to work for almost nothing because we helped them first." Jack didn't bother arguing. Because she wasn't wrong. Aldric wiped dust from his hands.

"What's the damage?" Seraphine pushed the ledger toward him.

"We need a real contract. Something large enough to stabilize things before this becomes unsustainable." Aldric flipped through several pages silently before grimacing.

"It's that bad?"

"Yes."

"That's a problem because we have another problem. The thieves guilds are getting bolder the hit a warehouse under our protection during the day."

"Any casualties?" Jack asked.

"A few injuries but the workers gave it up with out a fight. We don't have enough men to protect our contracts during normal business hours." Sera tapped her ledger in frusteration.

"And to do so would put us farther in the hole."

"And if we don't we might loose the very business we are trying to build." Kael stayed quiet, though Jack already knew where he stood. Helping the Dock Ward had never been a question for him. Jack could feel the weight of the building around them then. The repairs half-finished. The workers now depending on them. The fragile thing they were trying to build before it fully existed. Seraphine finally broke the silence.

"I may have a proposal." Aldric immediately looked suspicious.

"That sentence usually ends with, just trust me." She ignored him.

"Viktor is looking for people." The atmosphere chilled slightly as Aldric shut the ledger he was still perusing with a snap.

"No." A single word, one that rang of finality. Seraphine exhaled through her nose.

"You didn't even hear the job."

"I don't need to."

"He's paying enough to solve our current problem and the next one after that."

"And doing so we create three new ones." Seraphine stepped forward glaring at Aldric and poking the closed ledger in his hands.

"We need coin, Aldric. Real coin. Not another month of barely scraping ahead while Jack tries to personally subsidize half the district." Aldric's jaw tightened.

"Viktor is a rat in wolf's clothing," he said flatly.

"That man doesn't even pretend to be a sheep." Seraphine pinched the bridge of her nose.

"That doesn't even make sense""I stand by what I said." Jack looked away before either of them noticed the amusement threatening to surface. Kael had been quiet the entire conversation. Now he looked exhausted enough to collapse where he stood.

"I'm not saying it's clean work," Seraphine admitted.

"It probably isn't entirely legal either. But it's the only thing I've seen that earns enough to actually pull us out of this."

"And what happens after?" Aldric asked.

"Once Viktor decides we belong to him because we took his money?"

"He doesn't own everyone he hires."

"No," Aldric agreed.

"Only the desperate ones." That landed harder than the rest. Because all of them understood how close they were to becoming exactly that. Jack finally stepped between the conversation before it hardened further.

"No." Seraphine looked toward him immediately.

"No?" she repeated.

"Our first major step forward can't come from Viktor."

"I agree," Kael said at last. Seraphine stared at him for several long seconds before finally looking away.

"Then unless you have a miracle hidden somewhere, we still have a problem." Jack leaned back against the railing.

"I have already taken care of it." Aldric frowned slightly.

"You already found work?"

"Not exactly." Seraphine narrowed her eyes.

"That answer inspires absolutely no confidence."

"Then you'll just have to trust me," Jack said with a wink.