The accusation came three days after the well.
Vane had started to wonder whether Meridine could survive a moment of peace without immediately finding a reason to distrust it.
The shared repair had been small. Almost insignificant compared to fifteen years of division. Two people from opposite sides had cleared a collapsed channel together, and for one afternoon, the town had watched water return without asking who deserved credit for it.
Three days later, that fragile progress cracked.
The letter was found among the belongings of one of Maren's own scouts.
It was addressed to an Imperial contact.
Worse, it contained patrol movements that only someone inside Maren's council should have known.
By the time the six heard about it, the story had already spread through both halves of the town.
Rurik's people called it proof.
They had spent years listening to Maren condemn Imperial informants, and now one had apparently been found among her own.
Maren's people called it a plant.
