Notary Corve Penner drew a second sheet of heavy cream rag paper from his green pigskin folio and smoothed its creases flat against the scrubbed oak of the taproom bar.
Unlike the aged, grease-softened mortgage bond from the municipal bank vault, this document had been written out within the hour. The black iron-gall ink still smelled faintly of vinegar and copperas, and the red wafer at its foot bore the double-keyed die of the Harth Merchant Assize alongside Sir Cael Ardent’s personal signet—the crowned white rose pressed deep into the wax with a steel thumb-ring.
“Pursuant to Section Twelve of the Valley Commercial Code,” Penner read aloud, his voice dropping half a register as if he wished the oak floorboards would open and swallow his spectacles, “notice is hereby served upon Jon Hale and Elin Hale, joint proprietors of the freehold known as the River Lantern Inn on South Lane, that full redemption of the fifty-silver-crown principal balance under Instrument Forty-Four is demanded on or before the twelfth stroke of the midday bell on the tenth day of the high-water month.”
Penner’s ink-stained finger traced down the left margin to the penalty clause.
“Should the aforesaid sum of fifty silver crowns in coined royal silver not be weighed and receipted upon the assize cloth by the stated hour,” the notary continued, “all right, title, keys, easements, and subterranean foundation privileges appertaining to the four-cornerstone parcel shall pass immediately and without further right of equity into the sole possession of the…
