The heavy iron-shod boots of sixty country court guards echoed up the wide hardwood stairs of the Thousand Treasures Pavilion, with the measured rustle of official court silk.
Leading the contingent was Chief Judge Wu of the Southern Circuit.
The judge was a severe, gray-bearded official in flowing scarlet robes stitched with the sky scales of justice. Behind him marched two dozen armored court guards carrying heavy boarding pikes. They were followed by a cadre of ink-stained treasury scribes hauling wooden writing desks and official sealing wax. When Wu crossed the threshold of the ninth-floor Patriarchal Safe hall, he stopped dead in his tracks.
Before him lay the ruins of an empire.
The circular round hall, once the private domain of the most powerful merchant oligarch in the province, was coated in white crushed marble and greasy high-pressure soot. In the center of the hall, the eighteen-ton Precursor combat titan lay toppled like a fallen bronze cliff, its crushed shoulder pinning the lifeless body of Guild Master Jin. Puddles of cooling stone water and green machine oil hissed softly against the scorched stone tiles.
Standing beside the fallen war engine was Lin Tao. His charcoal-gray traveled robe spotless, his hands resting easily behind his back.
