CHAPTER 42: A Difficult Position

In the Kaul estate garden, Shae confronts Hilo about selling a large cache of confiscated jade to Espenian crime boss Kromner and offering deeper ties to foreign Crews. Hilo argues the Mountain is secretly profiteering and that No Peak must match boldness to survive, using ill-gotten jade to strengthen the clan before inevitable conflict. He expects Shae to manage transoceanic movement using seized assets and contacts, and notes growing Mountain infighting after a Koben is gunned down.

Hilo urges pragmatism, claiming the Crews lack true clan loyalty and will be discarded after they serve No Peak’s aims. He mentions Anden will remain in Port Massy to support Shae’s new office. When Shae asks if he would have broken aisho had she died in the duel, Hilo replies only that Ayt believed he would.

That afternoon, Shae meets Chancellor Son at the Three Springs Leisure Club. While playing chasso, she presses him on maintaining pressure against Uwiwan smuggling, enforcing KJA oversight on the Mountain, and opposing the Oortokon Refugee Act. Son warns of public sentiment and humanitarian optics but agrees to remain in the Royal Council past his term as chancellor, preserving a tie-breaking vote to balance Guim En’s Mountain-aligned influence. He cautions Shae that No Peak is walking a thin line against national will.

The next evening at Woon Papidonwa’s wedding reception hosted at the Kaul estate, Shae—drinking more than usual—invites Maro to the Weather Man’s residence. Maro hopes for clan support for Four Virtues and the refugee act, but Shae deflects politics. Their strained intimacy resurfaces as Maro admits he cannot remain a peripheral “friend” and demands clarity about their future.

Shae kisses Maro, then tells him she had an abortion before her duel with Ayt. Stunned and hurt that she decided without him, Maro leaves in silence. Shae is left alone, her private loss and estrangement mirroring the moral compromises and political gambles the clan now embraces.