Selene kept her explanation tight. She told the river lord that House Veyran was hunting a pre-empire key, something that could open or reinforce an old seal under the eastern highlands. She did not speak the name. She did not describe the anchor crystal.
She only made clear that the key was real, that Veyran wanted it badly enough to pay for deaths, and that the two of them could either deliver it to the wrong hands or make sure it was never used at all.
The river lord listened without interrupting. When she finished he was silent for a long moment. The room held the usual sounds of the holdfast—distant water against the pilings, a guard shifting weight outside the door, the low creak of timber settling.
"You are asking me to protect something I cannot see and cannot hold," he said. "In return you offer the chance to inconvenience a house that has already cost me blood and coin. That is a thin bargain."
