Chapter 181: Fragile Cargo Part 1
The north yard of Cindralock was a skeleton of scaffolds and shored timbers, ropes creaking, the air shot through with chalk dust and a tang like vinegar left too long in sun. Commander Ves walked like the rock belonged to her, cutting across the courtyard toward the black-edged door without looking back to see if they followed. Inigo fell in step, Lyra ghosting his shoulder, eyes doing their habitual sweep—archways, rooflines, the rhythm of people’s hands. The JLTV ticked over behind them at idle, a square-jawed dog waiting for the command to heel.
"Alchemy wing took the worst of it," Ves called over her shoulder as they ducked under a strut where a mason wedged a length of oak against a cracked lintel. "North wall sloughed. We’ve braced load points, but I’d prefer your visit brief."
"How brief?" Inigo asked.
"If the cliff decides to shrug again," Ves said, "I’d rather it didn’t happen with strangers in the basement."
"Charmed," Lyra muttered, then winced at the smell hitting them past the threshold—ozone, sour ferment, something medicinal gone wrong.
The corridor beyond had been handsome once—white limewash, neat slate floor. It wore today like a battlefield dressing: scorched patches, spidering cracks, lintel stones out of plumb and propped by angled timber. They passed a pair of technicians in gray-trim coats kneeling over a crate to paint a sigil—triple chevron in blue. The younger one glanced up at Inigo’s boots, eyes flicking to the rifle, to the foreign buckles on his vest, to his hands. She looked back down as if embarrassed to have looked.
"Sigils color-coded?" Inigo asked, because it paid to know what rules you were breaking if you had to.
Ves didn’t slow. "Green band for stable. Amber for reactive. Red for don’t jostle, don’t warm, don’t even breathe at wrong angle. You’ll be taking four ambers and two reds." She glanced at his face like she was memorizing any flinch.
He didn’t give her one. "Manifests?"
"Signed. You’ll countersign when you load. Chain of custody goes to Elandra’s Alchemist Guildmaster, not the guild hall. Avoid detours."