The Sale Notice on the Front Door
Mara returns to the family refuge and finds a formally posted sale notice already nailed to the front door: four days until transfer, with Dorian Saye speaking as if the loss is routine and inevitable. She challenges the paperwork, spots a substituted page that proves the packet was handled on-site, and realizes the threat is not only legal but physical. Asha Ilyan draws her into the workshop, where fresh chalk inventory marks and a disturbed wall panel show the house is already being mapped for stripping. Behind the panel, Mara uncovers a salt-stained ledger scrap and a note proving the hidden file was moved after the sale notice went up, ending the chapter with the first actionable clue and the warning that someone in town now knows she has found it.
