A Meaningless Courtesy
A shipping clerk travels through mountain passes to finalize a property transfer with an isolated nobleman living beyond the edge of ordinary trade routes. The transaction appears routine at first: contracts, inheritance claims, transport arrangements, and relocation permits tied to abandoned properties near the harbor district. Weeks later, ships begin arriving at the river port carrying dead crews, diseased animals, and contradictory reports from inland settlements emptied almost overnight. The nobleman himself enters the city quietly while officials struggle to determine whether the growing catastrophe originates from illness, mass hysteria, criminal sabotage, or something older moving beneath all three.
5 pages. PDF and epub files included.
