The period following the operational launch of the Iron Works was characterized by a profound, uneasy silence. Kael had done everything possible to secure the barony: he had neutralized the debt, engineered economic viability, and legally challenged the Duke's fraud directly to the Imperial Chancery. Now, all momentum ceased, replaced by the grim necessity of waiting for the Imperial court's judgment and the inevitable, calculated retaliation that would follow. Kael understood that the Duke would not risk a costly military campaign against a well-fortified, legally protected asset; the attack would be subtle, financial, and political.
Kael spent his time auditing the intelligence flow from Fennis and Elara's network. The reports were highly specific, detailing subtle fluctuations in the capital's commodity markets. There was a notable, unexplained increase in the price of low-grade timber and construction aggregate, but nothing to suggest an immediate military mobilization—no abnormal stockpiling of iron, horse feed, or siege components. This confirmed Kael's hypothesis: the Duke was preparing a bureaucratic or economic move, not a frontal assault.
The resolution arrived not with a royal decree, but with a meticulously sealed packet delivered by a dedicated, heavily armed courier from the Imperial capital. The documents confirmed Kael's legal strategy had succeeded. The Imperial Chancery, faced with Kael's detailed Final Viability Report and the hard evidence of the debt clearance, issued a comprehensive ruling:
Debt Principal: The payment of the forty thousand gold mark debt principal was recognized as valid and complete, immediately extinguishing the Duke's right to asset seizure based on prior contracts.
Usury and Fraud: The court found sufficient evidence of usury and deliberate asset inflation in the Veynar Merchant Guild's original contracts to warrant a formal, multi-year inquiry into the guild's lending practices.
Baronial Status: Kael Veynar was formally reinstated as the legitimate Baron of the Ashen Frontier, and the territory was declared an Imperial asset under special observation, protected against any immediate internal noble seizure.
The ruling was a total legal victory, won by the systematic application of logistics and documentation. The Duke had lost his pretext, his money (through Kael's engineered repayment), and was now facing an Imperial inquiry. The relief in the barony was palpable, but Kael permitted no celebration, recognizing that the removal of the Duke's legal sword simply meant he would wield his political dagger.
The Duke's calculated response came exactly two weeks later, confirmed through a coded report from Fennis in the capital. It was not an attack on the barony, but an attack on the trade: a Coastal Blockade and Excise Tax. The Duke, using his influence within the regional governorship, had pushed through a series of new, highly punitive regulations applied specifically to "frontier goods deemed non-essential to the capital's defense." The legislation imposed a tax equivalent to 200% of the market value on all goods originating from the Ashen Frontier (ash briquettes, tuber flour) and required an Imperial certification of purity for the incoming coastal iron and salt shipments. The official justification was public health and maritime safety; the true goal was the immediate and total suffocation of Kael's vital trade route.
The implications were catastrophic. The 200% tax instantly made Ashfall's briquettes and flour economically unviable for Elara's house, destroying the profitability that guaranteed the ten-year contract. Furthermore, the arbitrary "Imperial purity certification" requirement would indefinitely hold up all incoming shipments of high-grade iron and salt, immediately halting production in the Iron Works and compromising the health and structural security of the entire barony.
Kael addressed the situation with the same cold, rational focus he applied to structural engineering. He summoned Rylen, Elms, Hektor, and Mara to the manor, presenting the coded documents and the new threat. "The Duke cannot defeat us with a siege engine, so he attempts to defeat us with a ledger," Kael stated, unperturbed. "We cannot fight the tax directly. We must nullify the tax by changing the classification of our goods."
Kael initiated a multi-pronged technical counter-strategy, targeting the specific language of the Duke's excise law.
First, Kael focused on the Coastal Blockade of Imports. Kael understood that the Duke could only hold up shipments for political inconvenience, not indefinitely. He ordered Hektor to immediately convert the entire remaining stock of high-grade coastal iron into universal, standardized components—nails, hinges, standardized fasteners, and replacement tool heads—anything that could be stored compactly and was immediately usable. The goal was to maximize the utility of the existing inventory before the inevitable blockade took effect. Simultaneously, Kael ordered Torvin to immediately cease all production of tuber flour, redirecting the processing energy to the immediate creation of a Salt Reclamation Project. Using the existing supply of salt, Kael directed a small team to build rudimentary evaporating trays near the new kiln, attempting to utilize waste heat to reclaim and purify salt from any low-salinity sources available on the frontier, preparing for the total stoppage of imports.
Second, Kael tackled the 200% Export Tax. The law targeted "non-essential frontier goods." Kael ordered an immediate, dramatic shift in the Kiln Project's focus. The briquettes would no longer be sold as "fuel"; they would be redesigned and sold as "Industrial Refractory Blocks." He instructed the laborers to increase the clay and silt content in a portion of the briquettes, firing them to a slightly higher temperature. The resulting block was denser and slightly less efficient as fuel, but it possessed superior insulation properties suitable for lining furnaces, kilns, and smelters. This small technical adjustment allowed Kael to argue that the product was not a "frontier fuel" but a high-value "specialized industrial component," qualifying for a different, potentially lower tax classification used for manufactured goods.
Third, Kael targeted the trade relationship itself. He dispatched a detailed, comprehensive report to Elara's house, not apologizing for the disaster, but presenting the technical counter-strategy and offering Elara an even more favorable long-term rate on the new "Refractory Blocks" to compensate for the cost of the tax. He proved that the barony's systematic management and technical innovation—the very things the Duke was trying to destroy—made it the only reliable supplier in the region, even with the tax burden. Kael was fighting political manipulation with technical adaptation, transforming the Duke's legal weapon into a manageable operating cost. The stability of Ashfall, Kael calculated, would ultimately prove more valuable to the trading house than the Duke's political power.