The cold iron vault in the Conclave Treasury was emptier than a dry well in a drought.
Elder Wu DeZheng stood before the payout wicket, his nose pressed against the copper bars. He watched a clerk in gray silk systematically cross Azure Cloud’s registration number off the prize ledger with a brush dipped in black pitch.
“Office locked deposit,” the clerk droned without looking up. “Under Trial Injunction 404-X, all prize disbursements earned by the Seventh Ward of Azure Cloud are frozen pending resolution of the jurisdictional audit filed by the Violet Mist Academy. Next.”
“Office locked deposit?” Wu gasped, his glasses fogging instantly. “We won the preliminary match! Ring Four was approved by Royal Circuit Censor Checker Tie himself! The purse is eight hundred spirit stones! We need that stone to pay our daily lodging heavy tax and buy healing roots for tomorrow’s bout!”
“Take it up with the Patent Trial, Elder,” the clerk replied. He slid a small iron hatch shut with a flat, final clack. “Next.”
Wu turned around, his hands fluttering in the cold hallway like two dying sparrows. “They’ve choked the liquidity. Zhao Wuji bought the Treasury clerks. In forty-eight hours, the Conclave Clerk hall will disqualify us for failing to post the five-thousand-stone competitor indemnity bond.”
