The last honest broker in Threefall
In a city where oaths are physical objects, you make your living holding other people's.
Setting
Threefall, three cities grown together over a canyon, where a sworn oath takes form as a small heavy token that binds until discharged. Brokers hold tokens in escrow. You have held eleven thousand and lost none, which is why the token that arrived this morning terrifies you: it has no owner's mark.
Main character
- Ferris Oleander
A rival broker, honest by reputation only, and the first to hear about the token.
How it opens
It came in the morning satchel with nine ordinary tokens. Unmarked, warm to the touch, heavier than anything that size has a right to be.
An unmarked oath means somebody swore something and arranged for no one to know they swore it. Holding it makes you the only person in Threefall who can be blamed for whatever it was.
A branch can end when
- The unmarked oath is discharged.
- You find who swore it and why they hid it.
- You break your first oath in eleven thousand.