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world/story-summary-book2.md

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+# Story Summary — Book 2: The Hollow Man
+
+**Purpose:** Quick-reference continuity document for Claude Code. Consult this file at the start of any drafting or revision session to establish context without re-reading all chapter drafts. For detailed revisions or line-level continuity checks, consult the full chapter drafts directly.
+
+**Last updated:** Ch04 final (2026-03-17)
+
+---
+
+## 1. Story Timeline Overview
+
+| Chapter | Title | Days Covered | Elapsed (from Book 2 Day 1) |
+|---------|-------|-------------|---------------------|
+| Ch01 | The Quiet | Day 1 (Godsday) | Day 1 |
+| Ch02 | The First Victim | Day 2 (Monday equiv.) | Day 2 |
+| Ch03 | Scene of the Crime | Day 3 (Tuesday equiv.) | Day 3 |
+| Ch04 | The Crystal Trail | Day 4 (Wednesday equiv.) | Day 4 |
+
+**Time gap from Book 1:** ~3 months after the epilogue. Deep winter → late winter.
+
+*For detailed bell/time references and continuity flags, see `/world/timeline-book2.md`.*
+
+---
+
+## 2. Chapter Summaries
+
+### Ch01: The Quiet
+
+**Timeline:** Day 1 (Godsday). Morning through just past eighth bell (~8 PM).
+
+**Summary:** Establishes the new status quo three months after Book 1. Phelan and Mere are living together at Chandler's Row. Godsday morning — Mere presents a household budget she's prepared in a ledger. Income: 15 silvers guild retainer, projected case fees (averaged from last three assignments — higher-tier cases have been arriving as briefs on the kitchen table since the Floundry aftermath), 12 silvers/month ore income through Leon's channels. Phelan's noise engages — he can't accept Mere's method without independently verifying it. Spends two hours redoing the budget his way (thirteen branching scenarios, edge cases, contingency layers). Same number: 8.5 silvers monthly surplus, 51 months to house target. Mere: "I told you." She reclassifies his work as useful contingency modelling. Both methods kept.
+
+**Training with Leon (fourth bell, ~4 PM):** Courtyard behind the chandler's shop. Fire combat sparring — Leon's volume vs. Phelan's precision threading. Twelve seconds integrated casting is the ceiling; Phelan holds twelve and a half (progress). Leon identifies the targeting drift at the thirteenth second. Easy rhythm, comfortable back-and-forth — tips traded (Leon's layered ignition technique, Phelan's bracelet buffering rhythm). Godsday rules banter (Leon's invented traditions for being late). Tomorrow's training at sixth bell. Leon departs ~fifth bell as the light fades.
+
+**Devod's visit (~6:15 PM):** Arrives roughly an hour after Phelan gets home. Has been thinking about drainage for the house plans — presents hollow pilings concept (over-engineered, over-budget). Phelan extracts the kernel: integrated function (structure and drainage as one system). Filed for future revision. Devod brings windfall apples (Henwick's orchard, Thursday route). Mere engages with him directly about the apples — Devod's barely-contained brightness when she does. Stays ~20 minutes, talks delivery routes, asks about Leon's training (gathering data about people in Mere's life). Three more house ideas (two impractical, one worth investigating — timber sourcing on the eastern road). Departs with his characteristic too-many-words-at-the-door exit.
+
+**Evening quiet scene:** Phelan at the kitchen table with house plans (revision 10) and the budget. Devod's integration concept percolating. Mere reading herbalism in the sitting room. Sniff asleep. Bracelet warm amber. The noise reflects on the day — the quiet is good, the surplus is real, the training ceiling moved, and two methods producing the same number is probably the answer to a question he hasn't figured out how to ask.
+
+**Disruption — guild knock (just past eighth bell, ~8 PM):** Guild runner delivers a sealed note from Ledger. Not a case brief — no case number, no classification, no client summary, no fee schedule. Handwritten. "Pattern identified. Compact is aware and not acting. We need to discuss." Requests attendance at the hall tomorrow, eighth bell. Phelan reads it twice. The noise shifts to the sharper kind. The quiet lasted exactly as long as he expected.
+
+### Ch02: The First Victim
+
+**Timeline:** Day 2 (Monday equivalent). Sixth bell (~6 AM) through late morning.
+
+**Training with Leon (sixth bell, ~6 AM):** Ring accuracy work in the courtyard — Phelan switches from sparring to targeting because he doesn't want to get dirty before the guild meeting. Twelve paces, sustained fire thread through the focusing ring at a chalk target. Thirteen seconds achieved — ugly, not clean, but held (2 out of 4 attempts). The ceiling moved from 12.5 to 13 seconds. Leon identifies the key issue: targeting locks in around nine seconds, anything before that window and Phelan compensates rather than absorbs environmental disruption. **Charged whip demonstration:** Leon asks to see the whip at full charge. Phelan holds a 6-second charge through the ring — the convergence architecture compresses and stacks energy — then releases a thick whip-arc that blackens the far wall. Weave is fat enough for sustained combustion, not just scorching. Leon notes the improvement from last week: thicker weave, more energy into the charge before the channels resist. Phelan's noise reflects on three months of daily ring work driving the improvement — repetition and adaptation, ring learning the fire, fire learning the ring. Leon estimates 15–18ft effective range at that charge level with room before vibration threshold. Leon needles Phelan about the guild summons — the collar/leash joke. "Three months of case briefs landing on your kitchen table like clockwork, and now they're summoning you to the hall. That's not a meeting, Phelan. That's a fitting." Leon's advice: "Know the difference between walking through a door and being led through one." ~1 hour session. Comfortable dynamic, last moment of routine before the case.
+
+**Ledger's briefing (eighth bell, guild hall):** Phelan's first time past the interview corridor — third door on the right, deeper into the building. Ledger's office: a working desk, annotated map of Drenwick with coloured pins, a folder. This is not a case brief — it's a guild operation, guild-funded, assigned directly. Two signals: (1) Ledger's intelligence network detected a draining pattern across Drenwick — 7 confirmed victims over 6 weeks (dockworker in warrens, shopkeeper's wife near canal, student in arcane district, others), all presenting with severe fatigue, cognitive confusion, premature aging. Spread across multiple districts, no demographic pattern. (2) A Compact compliance officer filed an internal report flagging "anomalous arcane residue consistent with unregistered life-force extraction," recommended investigation — report acknowledged, filed, no action taken. Officer reassigned to records management in Thorngate three days later. Two signals, one conclusion: someone with Compact protection is running an unregistered magical weapon. Arcane residue suggests pre-Compact signature — older than current regulatory framework. Ledger assigns Phelan specifically: structural analysis capabilities + Leon's pre-Compact artifact knowledge. 12 investigation sites total (7 victim locations, 3 residue-only, 2 high-probability). Frequency escalating: first 3 incidents in 4 weeks, last 4 in 2 weeks. Phelan realizes the scope means he needs help — solo work can't outrun the pattern. Ledger: "How you work is your business. That it works is mine." **Pathfinder seed #1:** The noise notes Ledger's network reach — how does a guild desk analyst have warrens-level contacts and access to internal Compact documents? Filed, not explored.
+
+**Carter's shop (after briefing, ~ninth bell):** Phelan stops by Carterson's Supplies to survey available gear for the case. Shelves are noticeably thin — focusing crystals (7 where there should be 12-15), inscription-grade minerals (3 containers where there should be 8), reagents rearranged to hide gaps. Local supply normal; imported/Compact-regulated stock depleted. Carter explains: 3 suppliers went quiet over 6 weeks in the same pattern (orders stopped, payment returned without explanation). Supplier names: Maren (mineral broker, east road), Halwick (specialty district, inscription-grade), Donnick's Refined Compounds (Compact-certified). Carter already investigated — traced coordination, confirmed other shops unaffected (specific to him). Comes to Phelan as a peer: "I've done what I can do. This is your kind of problem." Has 6-8 weeks of reserve before critical shortage. **Gear comment:** Carter notices Phelan is wearing wool for fire combat training. "Someone doing what you're doing should have protection. Treated leather at minimum. Something with channelling resistance along the contact surfaces — cuffs, collar, hem." Calls it professional negligence, not concern. **Brother reveal:** Carter looks at Phelan's Barrows neck scar and tells him about his brother Tomael — guild supply runner who died at the third door, second floor of the Greymarch Barrows. Gear was rated to spec, passed every test, still failed. Carter was two steps behind him. First time Carter has shared this with Phelan directly. Recontextualises Carter's obsessive quality standards for Phelan — "good enough" killed his brother, every piece of gear from the workshop carries that lesson. Seeds the Ch11 jacket delivery. Phelan buys 2 vials ward-resistance compound + containment sleeve.
+
+**Closing beat (walking home):** The noise processes both problems side by side — draining case and Carter's supply chain. Notes they share an architecture (institutional cover enabling harm) but aren't connected. Probably. Plans to read the folder tonight, start victim sites tomorrow, and have the pre-Compact conversation with Leon. The quiet from Ch01 is over. The case requires collaboration — "the case has decided this for me."
+
+### Ch03: Scene of the Crime
+
+**Timeline:** Day 3 (Tuesday equivalent). Pre-dawn through late afternoon.
+
+**Morning at Chandler's Row:** Phelan at the kitchen table before sixth bell, having read the case folder overnight. Mapped all 12 sites. Mere enters with her own copy of the folder (she made a copy). Her contribution: "The cognitive confusion precedes the fatigue in five of seven cases. That's a sequence, not a cluster." Clinical, precise — a data point Phelan hadn't extracted. Different analytical method, same data set. The sequence implies a pathway direction: cognitive centres are the entry point or the first system to fail under extraction load. **Mere planned the investigation route** — drew it out on a blank page, three numbered stops, optimised for efficiency. Included a stop at Maren's brokerage (Carter's supplier) on the east road between sites, without being asked — Phelan had mentioned Carter's problem once the night before and she'd filed it. Mere warns Phelan about the dockworker's wife: "Don't let her hear [you can fix this] unless you mean it." Phelan skips training for the first time — case takes priority over the sixth-bell routine.
+
+**Arcane district site (mid-morning):** First site visit. Student boarding house — Vellen Thrace, third-year inscription apprentice, second-floor room. Landlord notes the Compact "already came through" two weeks ago, looked, wrote something, left. Room is in the arcane district's suppression field — clean background, easy residue reading. Flaw Sight engagement: the draining signature is visible but the architecture is wrong. Not broken, not flawed — different. Pre-Compact construction: deeper-set anchoring, irregular node spacing, routing methodology that modern practice abandoned. "Like reading handwriting from a century ago — recognisable as writing but the conventions are wrong." The working is an extraction pathway — life force drawn from the victim and routed northeast through a structured, repeatable channel. Not improvised. A tool, not a spell. The construction quality is unsettling — competent, professionally done, an engineer's work within an unfamiliar framework. Twenty minutes on site.
+
+**Warrens site — Ren Dorren's family (late morning):** Brewer's Alley. Ground floor tenement. Wife (Mrs. Dorren, late twenties/early thirties) answers. Three children: Tam (~3-4) on the rug with blocks, toddler (~18 months) asleep in crib, eldest out (muddy boots by door). Phelan introduces himself as "the Locksmith" — first time using the professional name with a civilian. Ren in the back room — thirty-one years old, looks fifty. Visible aging, cognitive confusion, can't lift his youngest child. Mrs. Dorren describes onset: confusion first (asking the same question four times in an hour), then fatigue, then aging. Confirms Mere's cognitive-first sequence. Flaw Sight: identical signature to arcane district — same architecture, same construction. But heavier traces, denser extraction pathway. The later drainings left messier residue — escalation confirmed. Outbound pathway points northeast, same vector as first site. Phelan lingers one beat longer than necessary. The narration notes the lingering without explaining it. Mrs. Dorren asks "Will he get better?" — Phelan answers "I don't know yet. I know what happened. I'm working on who did it."
+
+**Carter B-plot — Maren's brokerage (early afternoon):** East road, between sites. Maren Harwick (mid-forties, sharp-featured) stonewalls Phelan. "I'm not currently filling orders for that account" — rehearsed, polished. Not frightened, not angry — compliant. Institutional pressure, not criminal. "I can't help you" (not "won't"). Canal district inquiries on the way home — ambient rumours of coordinated supply adjustments, regulatory guidance, nobody specific. Coordination is real, source obscured behind bureaucratic plausibility. Carter's problem is Compact-sized.
+
+**Third site — residue-only (mid-afternoon):** Cobbler's workshop near canal district boundary. Faint, incomplete signature — same pre-Compact architecture but the lattice is partial, extraction pathway not fully formed. Edge of range, or attempted draining that didn't connect, or residue drift. The instrument has range limits. Pattern crystallisation: same source, same tool, same pre-Compact architecture at all three sites. One operator, one instrument, escalating output. The signature is the instrument's, not the operator's — no personal magical fingerprint. The tool does all the work. Earlier drainings took less, later took more. The architecture predates the Compact — built decades ago within a framework no longer in living practice. **Noise-leash beat:** After the analytical spiral, Phelan deliberately pulls back from the noise — a skill he's taught himself since the Floundry crash. "Three months of practice had given me a leash where before I'd had nothing." Growth: he can disengage before the migraines, before Mere has to nurse him through the crash. The noise resists, but the leash holds.
+
+**Closing beat (late afternoon):** Decision: Phelan needs Leon. The pre-Compact architecture is beyond his expertise. He can describe what the working did, but he can't identify what produced the signature. Leon's domain — pre-Compact systems, old construction, historical magic architecture. Tomorrow: not training, the pre-Compact conversation. The noise surfaces one last observation: the craftsmanship wasn't just old, it was good. The instrument was built to drain. Purpose-built. Specified, designed, manufactured to extract human vitality. Not repurposed. Whoever made it was skilled within their framework and knew exactly what they were creating.
+
+### Ch04: The Crystal Trail
+
+**Timeline:** Day 4 (Wednesday equivalent). Morning through evening.
+
+**Leon recognizes the crystal (morning, courtyard):** Phelan meets Leon at the courtyard — no training today, case conversation. Describes the pre-Compact signatures from all three sites. Leon goes still, then identifies the architecture: a Mallory focusing crystal. Irregular node spacing (biological routing, not geometric), deeper anchoring (life-force workings need baseline hooks), northeast vector (outbound extraction channel to collection point). Then the recognition: "The Vethani crystal. The one I sold to Harren six months ago." Leon reveals why he sold cheap: "My father got attacked between towns. Healers aren't cheap." Phelan's noise processes the new information — D'Nardis minor nobility, father injured in bandit raid, Leon sold a pre-Compact artifact at a third of its value to cover healer bills. Phelan had noticed the low price at the time but filed it as Leon's business. Leon's guilt surfaces — quiet shock, then operational pivot. Boxes the emotion, pivots to tracing the buyer. Leon was already planning to visit Harren to browse for a fire augmentation tool (jealous of Phelan's ring). Double duty: shopping + investigation.
+
+**Harren's Collected Antiquities (arcane district):** Rented shopfront, east side of arcane district. Three ward layers on the door (detection, identification, response — military sequence). Harren: mid-fifties, barrel-shaped, thinning hair, two-second appraisal eyes. Greets Leon warmly — repeat customer. Leon browses fire augmentation tools; Harren shows a Telessi projection sleeve (third era, worn channels, +8-10ft range). Phelan asks about the crystal sale. Harren shuts down — "I don't discuss buyers." Leon applies pressure: tells Harren the crystal is killing people, chain runs through both of them, veiled threat ("I'd prefer to keep this between professionals"). Harren cracks. Crystal sold within a month to an intermediary through broker Galden. Intermediary: average height, professional clothing, forgettable, asked practitioner's questions (inscription, anchoring integrity, conversion efficiency — not a collector). Broker inquiries followed 2-3 months later — someone checking provenance chain. Phelan connects these to the inquiries from a few months back. Harren gives the broker name: Galden, canal district, Warehouse Row, third building from junction. Discreet, professional, expensive. Leon buys the Telessi sleeve for 40 silvers (no haggling — lost the appetite). Outside, Leon acknowledges the irony. Operational pivot: Leon knows Galden's name, knows broker psychology, volunteers to run him down. Phelan also tasks Leon with finding alternative suppliers for Carter outside Compact-regulated channels.
+
+**Ledger's reluctant share (guild hall):** Ledger's office — new red pins on the map, clustered northeast. Opens a different folder — thinner, edges worn from weeks/months of handling (predates the draining case). Delivers: "I have intelligence that a woman connected to a man named Kae was recently killed. I believe this is related to your case." Measured, controlled — too controlled. Phelan cold-reads: the folder is old, the Kae name isn't new intelligence, Ledger has been sitting on this and deciding when/how much to share. Something personal underneath the institutional framing. Kae: street name, no registered identity, active in warrens, protected by street contacts. Ledger doesn't offer more. Phelan files the omission, doesn't push yet. **Victim escalation:** Two new reports — both from last three days. One critical: woman in merchants' quarter, severe cognitive deterioration, healer puts chances at even. Earlier victims were surviving; these aren't necessarily. Instrument being used more frequently and/or with more force. Ledger: "Find Kae. Before the next victim doesn't survive." **Pathfinder seed #2:** Ledger's worn folder, personal investment, intelligence reach continues to exceed what a desk analyst should have.
+
+**The Misread — evening at Chandler's Row:** Phelan arrives home. Noise-leash used on the walk (resistance familiar now). Tells Mere about the case unprompted — "It was Leon's crystal." This is new; he doesn't normally volunteer case information without being asked. Mere's observation: "Leon's guilt will make him reckless." Then: "Tell him to be strategic. 'Careful' isn't in his vocabulary." Clean, practical advice — but Phelan's noise reads criticism that isn't there. Hears judgment of his decision to let Leon run unsupervised. Adjusts behavior: pulls back from conversation, plans to set parameters with Leon tomorrow. **Mere didn't mean any of it as criticism.** Words were the whole message. The noise can't stop reading subtext even when the gap doesn't exist. Phelan doesn't know this yet — recalibration comes in Ch05 when Mere notices the behavioral shift and asks why.
+
+**Carter B-plot:** Woven into Leon's tasking. Phelan asks Leon to find alternative suppliers for Carter outside Compact-regulated channels while he's in the canal district. Leon: "Carter's standards are higher than most Compact-certified suppliers." Gives himself two days on Galden and the supplier search.
+
+---
+
+## 3. Active Character Tracker
+
+| Character | Status at End of Ch04 | Last Seen |
+|-----------|----------------------|-----------|
+| Phelan Varrant | Crystal identified as Mallory (Leon's Vethani recovery). Harren and Galden leads obtained. Kae named by Ledger. Victim escalation confirmed. Misread Mere's advice — behavioral adjustment based on nonexistent criticism. | Ch04 |
+| Mere Fields | Gave clean tactical advice about Leon ("tell him to be strategic"). Phelan misread it as criticism. At Chandler's Row. | Ch04 |
+| Leon D'Nardis | Identified the crystal as his Vethani recovery. Revealed father's injury as reason for cheap sale. Guilt surfaced, boxed, operational pivot. Bought Telessi projection sleeve (40 silvers). Tasked with running down broker Galden + finding alternative suppliers for Carter. Headed to canal district. | Ch04 |
+| Devod Fields | Peripheral, grateful. Visiting with house ideas and apples. Awkward orbit. | Ch01 |
+| Sniff | At Chandler's Row, asleep under kitchen table. | Ch04 |
+| Ledger | Brought "Kae" name and dead woman intel (worn folder, personal investment visible). Withheld details — Phelan cold-read the omission. Reported victim escalation (two new, one critical). | Ch04 |
+| Carter (Jonael Carterson) | Supply chain under pressure. Leon tasked with finding alternative contacts outside Compact channels. | Ch02 (B-plot advanced Ch04) |
+| Cassius Rykhard | Off-page. Reassigned to Thorngate after Book 1. | Book 1 |
+| Harren | Artifact dealer, "Harren's Collected Antiquities," east side of arcane district. Sold crystal within a month of Leon's sale — to intermediary via broker Galden. Provided intermediary description and broker name under pressure from Leon. | Ch04 (NEW) |
+| Galden | Broker, canal district, Warehouse Row, third building from junction. Facilitated crystal sale to unnamed buyer. Discreet, professional, expensive. Leon is pursuing. | Ch04 (NEW, referenced) |
+| Maren Harwick | Mineral broker, east road. Stonewalled Phelan — "I can't help you." Under institutional (Compact-adjacent) pressure to stop supplying Carter. | Ch03 |
+| Mrs. Dorren | Dockworker Ren's wife. Late twenties/early thirties. Holding family together. Asked Phelan "Will he get better?" | Ch03 |
+| Ren Dorren | Dockworker, warrens. Draining victim. Age 31, looks 50. Can't lift his son Tam. Three children total: eldest (out, muddy boots by door), Tam (~3-4), toddler (~18 months, napping in crib). Cognitive confusion + physical decline. | Ch03 |
+| Vellen Thrace | Third-year inscription apprentice, arcane district. Draining victim. Off-page — room examined, Vellen not present. | Ch03 (referenced) |
+
+---
+
+## 4. Plot Thread Tracker
+
+| Thread | Status | Last Updated |
+|--------|--------|-------------|
+| House plans | Revision 10, east-facing kitchen. Question mark on workshop east wall (needs soil samples). Devod's integration concept (structure + drainage) filed for revision 11. | Ch01 |
+| Budget/finances | 8.5 silvers monthly surplus. 51 months to house target at conservative estimate. Both Mere's and Phelan's methods kept. | Ch01 |
+| Fire combat training | 13 seconds integrated casting (ugly, 50% success rate). Ceiling moved from 12.5 (Ch01) to 13 (Ch02). Key issue: targeting locks at ~9 seconds, early disruption causes compensation not absorption. Ring accuracy work (targeting at range) replacing sparring as the focus. **Charged whip:** 6-second charge produces thick whip-arc at 15–18ft with room before vibration threshold. Weave thick enough for sustained combustion. Three months of daily practice has pushed the ring's charge tolerance — a month ago, 6 seconds would have had the ring shaking by four. | Ch02 |
+| **Draining case (MAIN PLOT)** | Crystal identified: Mallory focusing crystal, Leon's Vethani recovery, sold to Harren ~6 months ago, resold to intermediary through broker Galden. Intermediary asked practitioner's questions (not collector's). Provenance inquiries followed 2-3 months later. "Kae" named by Ledger — street name, no registered identity, warrens, protected by contacts. Dead woman connected to Kae (Ledger holding back details). Victims escalating: two new reports, one critical. Leon pursuing Galden (2-day timeline). Next: Leon's broker conversation + street investigation to converge on Kae (Ch05). | Ch04 |
+| **Carter supply chain (B-PLOT)** | Compact intermediaries identified as pressure source. Leon tasked with finding alternative contacts outside Compact-regulated channels while in canal district. Carter evaluating with exacting standards. | Ch04 |
+| Carter gear comment + brother reveal | Carter noted Phelan's wool coat as inadequate — "professional negligence." Looked at Phelan's Barrows neck scar and revealed brother Tomael's death (third door, second floor, gear met standard but failed). First time shared with Phelan. Recontextualises Carter's quality obsession. Seeds Ch11 jacket delivery. | Ch02 |
+| Pathfinder seed #1 | Phelan's noise noted Ledger's network reach — warrens-level contacts, access to internal Compact documents. "How does a guild desk analyst have this?" Filed, not explored. | Ch02 |
+| Pathfinder seed #2 | Ledger's worn folder (predates draining case), personal investment in dead woman connected to Kae, intelligence reach continues to exceed desk analyst scope. | Ch04 |
+| Leon's guilt thread | Crystal he sold is killing people. Father's injury drove the cheap sale. Guilt boxed under operational competence — threw himself into investigation. Mere warns guilt will make him reckless. | Ch04 |
+| The Misread (Phelan-Mere) | Phelan misread Mere's blunt advice as criticism. Adjusted behavior based on nonexistent subtext. Desync active — recalibration in Ch05. | Ch04 |
+| Leon — Telessi projection sleeve | Bought from Harren for 40 silvers. Third era, worn channels, +8-10ft fire range. Fire augmentation tool — jealous of Phelan's ring. | Ch04 |
+| Galden (broker lead) | Canal district, Warehouse Row, third building from junction. Leon pursuing — 2-day timeline. Facilitated crystal sale. | Ch04 |
+| Devod's orbit | Present but peripheral. Bringing ideas, food, excuses to visit. Grateful energy. | Ch01 |
+| Higher-tier guild work | Case fees climbing since Floundry. Now escalated: first guild "assignment" (not a client brief) — guild-priority operation. | Ch02 |
+| Charlette/Thresholds | Unresolved. Mere left ~6 months ago (3 months before epilogue + 3 months since). Not mentioned in Ch01-02. | Book 1 |
+
+---
+
+## 5. Financial Ledger
+
+| Item | Amount | Notes |
+|------|--------|-------|
+| Guild retainer | 15 silvers/month | Stable |
+| Projected case fees | Variable (climbing) | Averaged from last 3 higher-tier assignments |
+| Ore income | 12 silvers/month | Conservative estimate. Sarren brothers uncommitted past March. Spring demand may compensate. |
+| Monthly surplus | 8.5 silvers | Conservative estimate, both methods agree |
+| House target | ~1,300 silvers | Per economy.md |
+| Months to target | 51 | At current surplus rate |
+
+---
+
+## 6. World Facts Established
+
+- Chandler's Row is in the guild quarter (border area). West-facing kitchen in current home.
+- Chandler's lease renews in ~4 months. Guild quarter gentrifying east (Mrs. Trevanney sold 15% above assessment).
+- Henwick's orchard on Devod's Thursday delivery route provides windfall apples.
+- Devod negotiating a new contract with a warehouse on the canal.
+- Devod knows a timber yard on the eastern road (worth investigating for house).
+- Dried silverthorn price increased 11% in last 6 months (Gavren's supplier).
+- Pre-Compact ore sells better in spring (academic institutions restock) per Leon.
+- Guild knocks: two measured strikes, a pause, a third.
+- **Guild hall geography:** 14 Greystone Lane. Reception → hallway. Second door on left = interview/deposition chamber (Ch04 Book 1, previous debriefs). Third door on right = deeper, past where decor shifts to functional. Doors have locks, walls have layered wards. Ledger's office: desk with drawers/papers, two chairs, annotated map of Drenwick with coloured pins (red, blue, yellow).
+- **Carter's suppliers (named):** Maren (mineral broker, east road), Halwick (specialty district, inscription-grade materials), Donnick's Refined Compounds (Compact-certified, supplies half the guild quarter, 4-year relationship with Carter).
+- **Compact compliance officer:** Filed internal report on "anomalous arcane residue consistent with unregistered life-force extraction." Report acknowledged, no action. Officer reassigned to Thorngate records management 3 days later.
+- **Draining victim profile:** Severe fatigue, cognitive confusion, premature aging. In 2 cases, visible aging within days. Dockworker in warrens (family of 5 — wife + 3 children, breadwinner reduced from full capacity to barely functional in under a week). Shopkeeper's wife near canal. Student in arcane district. Others.
+- **Ward-resistance compound price:** Still 6 silvers guild / 3 silvers Carter (per Book 1). Phelan bought 2 vials in Ch02.
+- **Carter's brother Tomael:** Revealed to Phelan in Ch02. Guild supply runner, died at the third door second floor of Greymarch Barrows. Standard gear rated to spec, passed every test, failed against the ward. Carter was two steps behind carrying secondary pack. First on-page disclosure — Carter saw Phelan's Barrows neck scar and connected it to the gear gap. Phelan now understands the origin of Carter's obsessive quality standards.
+- **Vellen Thrace:** Third-year inscription apprentice, arcane district. Draining victim. Rented second-floor room in a boarding house three streets east of Compact local offices. Compact visited the room two weeks ago, declared it safe to re-let, took no further action. Landlord hasn't re-let it.
+- **Ren Dorren:** Dockworker, warrens. Brewer's Alley, ground floor of three-storey tenement. Age 31, looks 50. Wife (Mrs. Dorren, late twenties/early thirties), three children: eldest (school-age, out during visit), Tam (~3-4, playing with blocks), youngest (~18 months, napping in crib). Was loading double crates at the docks. Cognitive confusion started ~4 weeks ago (asking same question four times in an hour), fatigue followed 3 days later, then visible aging. Healer charged 20 silvers, diagnosed "accelerated senescence," offered nothing.
+- **Maren Harwick:** Mineral broker, east road. Full name established Ch03. Shop between a chandler and a rope-maker. Mid-forties, sharp-featured. Under institutional (Compact-adjacent) pressure — "I can't help you" (not "won't"). Compliant, not frightened.
+- **Arcane district:** Northeast quarter of Drenwick. Ward-stones in pavement maintain background suppression field. Clean, regulated, orderly. Near Compact local offices.
+- **Warrens geography:** Southwest corner of Drenwick. Narrow streets, tall buildings blocking winter light. Ward-stones cracked or missing. Brewer's Alley named for a closed brewery.
+- **Draining residue characteristics (Ch03):** Pre-Compact architecture — deeper-set anchoring, irregular node spacing, unfamiliar routing methodology. Outbound extraction pathway points northeast from multiple sites. Same vector from arcane district and warrens. Later drainings leave heavier, denser, messier traces (escalation). No operator fingerprint — instrument does all the work. Instrument has range limits (cobbler site = edge of effective range, incomplete signature).
+- **Noise-leash (Ch03):** Phelan has learned to deliberately disengage from analytical spirals — a skill developed over three months since the Floundry crash. "The noise resisted. It always resists. But three months of practice had given me a leash where before I'd had nothing." Motivation: avoid migraines and crashes that require Mere to nurse him. Growth from Book 1, but the noise still fights it.
+- **"The Locksmith" as introduction (Ch03):** Phelan introduces himself to Mrs. Dorren as "the Locksmith" rather than by name — first civilian use of the professional title. Suggests he's learned it opens doors faster than "Phelan Varrant." Ledger had told Mrs. Dorren to expect someone from the guild.
+- **Harren's Collected Antiquities (Ch04):** Rented shopfront, east side of arcane district. Sign deliberately modest. Three ward layers on door (detection, identification, response — military sequence). Harren: mid-fifties, barrel-shaped, thinning hair, appraisal eyes that assign a price within two seconds. Deals in pre-Compact artifacts through grey-market channels. Repeat customer relationship with Leon.
+- **Mallory focusing crystal — technical details (Ch04, via Leon):** Mallory crystals use irregular node placement (biological routing, not geometric — Compact standardised node grids). Deeper-set anchoring required for life-force workings (surface anchors slide off). Northeast vector = outbound extraction channel routing to collection point.
+- **Telessi projection sleeve (Ch04):** Third era artifact. Worn channels but architecture holds. Adds ~8-10ft clean fire range before distortion. Purchased by Leon from Harren for 40 silvers.
+- **Galden (Ch04):** Broker operating from canal district, Warehouse Row, third building from junction. Handles acquisitions for clients who prefer anonymity. Discreet, professional, expensive. Facilitated the crystal sale from Harren to the unnamed intermediary buyer.
+- **Crystal intermediary description (Ch04, via Harren):** Average height. Professional clothing, not expensive — dressed to be forgettable. Practitioner's knowledge — checked inscription, tested anchoring integrity, asked about conversion efficiency. Not a collector.
+- **Provenance inquiries (Ch04):** 2-3 months after the crystal sale, someone checked the chain of custody through broker channels — who sold it, who handled it, where recovered from. Harren didn't respond. Phelan connects these to the inquiries he'd heard about previously.
+- **Leon's father (Ch04):** D'Nardis family — minor nobility, governs territory between cities. Father attacked by bandits between towns. Survived but required expensive healing. This + operational debt from Vethani Crypts drove the 1,200-silver fire sale. First time Leon told Phelan the reason.
+- **Ledger's Kae folder (Ch04):** Separate from the draining case folder. Thinner, edges worn from weeks/months of handling. Predates the draining case assignment. Contains intelligence on "Kae" (street name, no registered identity, warrens, protected by contacts) and a dead woman connected to him.
+- **Victim escalation (Ch04):** Two new reports — both from last three days. One critical: woman in merchants' quarter, severe cognitive deterioration, accelerated physical aging. Healer puts chances at even. Pattern: earlier victims surviving, newer victims critical. Extraction volume increasing.
+- **Phelan volunteering case info to Mere (Ch04):** New behavior — told Mere about the case without being asked. "The sentence arrived in the room before the decision to speak it had fully formed." He doesn't examine why.
+- **Noise-leash (Ch04):** Used again on walk home from guild hall. Resistance familiar now — "an old argument I knew how to win, most of the time." Consistent with Ch03 leash usage.