The trip back to Oakhaven was a blur of mud, rain, and the metallic scent of victory. I hadn't bathed, my hands were still wrapped in linen bandages, and my hair was singed at the edges. I looked like a disaster. But I was carrying a bolt of "Iron-Silk" in a waterproof case, and that made me the most powerful person in the room.
"Ambassador Valerius is in the Sun Court," Lord Varick whispered as we entered the palace. He looked at my burnt clothes and raised a silver-grey eyebrow. "Perhaps a change of wardrobe before you meet him, Chancellor? You look like you've been 'Audited' by a furnace."
"No," I said, my voice like cold iron. "I want him to see the 'Cost of Doing Business.' In my world, a CEO only wears a suit when things are easy. When things are hard, you wear the scars of the 'Operational Reality'."
