The Lord of Carnage's message remained in the archive after the other betting comments vanished. It named no person, gave no order, and still made the rule of the city clearer than Rook's emergency seal had.
Someone outside the streets was making money when people accepted a contract that could seize them, move their bodies, or turn a failed rescue into a better show. Nox could not stop a god from watching, but he could decide what the Citadel allowed inside its own boundary.
He called the coalition meeting before the rescued witnesses had finished changing out of their wet clothes. Harlan and Yara sat beside the stage rail with blankets around their shoulders, while Yeda cleaned drainage grit from the cutter she had used to free them.
"Patrons are feeding both sides: Rook gets sponsor teams, while we get betting chatter, tips, and strangers deciding whether our losses are worth a payout," Nox said, placing the Lord of Carnage message beside Vasa's contract search.
