Chapter 16
The Women Who Paid
Mara climbed the market fountain and spoke the first stolen name. Senna spoke the second. Citizens answered with names embroidered on cuffs, hidden in hymn books, and scratched beneath marriage certificates.
Memory returned unevenly. Some women recovered daughters; others recovered only the knowledge that something had been taken.
They demanded more than restoration. They wanted a vote before anyone touched the stones again.
Elara had planned to break the crown herself. The victims rejected another queen deciding alone.
She accepted six hundred witnesses instead.
Venn's deputy arrived with Rowan as hostage and offered a trade: crown Elara by dawn or watch every recovered name disappear.