Chapter 398:The Smile That Broke
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Meanwhile the morning did not arrive kindly for Iron House. It arrived in layers of humiliation.
The first men reached the warehouse shortly after dawn with the ordinary arrogance of workers sent to open a place they still believed belonged to them. They had come carrying keys, account slates, and the dull confidence of people who expected routine. The western roads had been restless since yesterday, yes, but Iron House had moved fast. They had consolidated stock, shifted reserve ledgers, tightened guards, and brought the most important business under one larger roof. That had been the smart move. The safe move. The move was made by men who believed they understood pressure well enough to stand above it.
Then they opened the front.
The first thing they noticed was the smell.
Blood.
Too much blood for a warehouse accident and too fresh in memory to be hidden by spilled grain, old oil, and damp wood. It clung to the floorboards and beams in a way that made the men at the entrance stop speaking all at once.
The second thing they noticed was the emptiness.
Not total emptiness. That would almost have been easier to understand. This was worse. This was a place that had been selected against. Shelves broken in the right places. Lockboxes missing. Reserve crates gone. Main stock ripped from the center while low-value leftovers remained scattered like mockery. The ledgers were gone. The route bundles were gone. Coin storage was gone. The hidden compartments had been opened. Even some of the decoys had been smashed open and left behind as if the raiders had wanted Iron House to know their tricks had been seen and laughed at.
Then they saw the bodies.
Not one or two.
Enough to turn confidence into cold sweat.
Men they knew. Guards from the overnight line. Warehouse hands. Runners. One foreman half slumped under a support beam with his hooked blade still under his own hand as if pride had survived longer than his blood had. Two more by the side aisle. Another near the ledger desk. Several in the broken center line where it became obvious that a fight had happened and ended so quickly that the dead had fallen faster than a defense could properly form.
One of the opening men stumbled back outside and vomited into the dirt.
The second ran.
The third stood still long enough to understand the scale of it and then began shouting for every Iron House contact within reach.
By the time the next layer of men arrived, anger had already started replacing shock.
By the time the next layer after that arrived, anger had met fear and become something uglier.
No one in that warehouse wanted to say the truth out loud first.
They had thought they were winning.
That was the taste in all their mouths.
Yesterday morning had belonged to them. Dawn House’s wagon burned. Supplies were cut. Workers disappeared. Rumors spread. Merchants hesitated. Buyers pulled back. Iron House had pressed hard and clean and watched the first stage bend properly.
And then, during the night, someone had walked into the heart of their gathered confidence, killed their guards, stripped the place of value, and left the carcass behind for daylight to study.
There were only two possibilities.
Either this was Dawn House.
Or Iron House had a second enemy they had somehow been too blind to notice.
Neither answer felt safe.
Dickoff Iron arrived before the city’s full noon heat could climb. He was informed about the situation.
He came furious.
Not loud at first. Loud men were for subordinates. The most dangerous rage in men like Dickoff Iron always arrived in silence first, because silence meant the mind was still trying to count the damage before the mouth decided how much blood should answer for it.
He stepped out of his carriage, looked at the warehouse entrance, and knew immediately from the faces outside that this was not a theft.
This was an insult. He went in anyway. The sight inside changed him.
Not his posture. Not his clothes. Not the way he held his chin. Men like Dickoff had been trained too early and too viciously to let public collapse show first.
But his eyes changed.
That was enough.
They moved from fury to something much colder the moment he saw the center aisle. He took in the bodies, the broken line of resistance, the ripped-open compartments, and the missing stock. He saw the false-bottom chest overturned in the records chamber. He saw the support room half gutted. He saw the ruined decoy shelves. And worst of all, he saw where the attackers had not simply stolen goods, but chosen what mattered.
That meant they might have lost everything.
It was not a hungry beast raid. Not a mob taking his things. It was a hand that knew where to bite.
Dickoff stood in the central hall for a long moment without speaking. The men around him stayed silent too. No one wanted to be the first to offer excuses in a room where excuses would clearly be treated like guilt.
At last Dickoff turned to the nearest surviving warehouse clerk, who had not been on site for the night fighting but had arrived early enough to tremble usefully.
"How many died?"
The clerk swallowed once. "Still counting, Master..."
Dickoff’s eyes did not leave his face. "Count faster."
The clerk nearly bowed and ran at the same time.
Dickoff turned next to the side chamber where the route ledgers had been stored.
It was empty. He walked to the place where he kept his chaos stones.
They only saw Emptiness.
He looked at the reserve stock row.
Not empty, but wounded. Enough missing to matter. Enough left behind to make the insult obvious.
He did not shout. He asked the question that mattered more than shouting.
"Has anyone escaped?"
A bruised and pale surviving runner came forward. He heard the panic from inside. He heard the people shouting in pain. He didn’t dare to go inside. He was attacked by a scouting bat. That is how he was bruised. He ran and hid. Sekhmet knew about him yet let him live on purpose. He wanted one to survive to report everything.
He was the only one who had avoided death only because he was outside the Warehouse, answered with visible dread.
"I didn’t see them leave clearly."
Dickoff turned his head slowly.
"You didn’t!!!"
He answered, "They came too fast. It was Dawn house. I am sure of it."
Dickoff stepped toward him. The runner nearly bent under the pressure before being touched.
"You are telling me," Dickoff said, each word clean enough to cut, "that my warehouse was opened, my men were butchered, my stock was taken, my ledgers were stolen, and you were outside hiding in fear?"
The runner’s mouth worked once. "It was dark, Master. There were monsters. Most of them were women..."
Dickoff struck him before the explanation could finish. It was not with chaos energy. But with his hand.
The slap snapped the man half sideways and left blood at the corner of his mouth.
"I did not ask for fear," Dickoff said. "I asked for details."
No one else in the room moved. They were afraid enough now. That wasn’t useful for Dickoff.
By the time the warehouse losses were counted in rough measure, Dickoff no longer needed the proof explained to him.
It was Dawn House. He knew it very well.
No one else in the city had motive, timing, or that particular kind of answer.
The low branch had struck back in the dark before Iron House could finish enjoying the daylight.
That meant the insult had gone beyond trade.
It had become personal.
Dickoff left the warehouse with blood in his thoughts and anger in his chest like a coal refusing to die. He did not remain in the city. Not for long. The day’s next obligation waited outside the walls, at the camp of Mihos Dawn. The one audience he could not afford to delay now was the one he most wanted to postpone.
Because they had gone to Mihos smiling yesterday.
This morning they would go to him bleeding.
Outside the city, the camp still held the polished arrogance of a temporary court pretending not to be a war structure. The banners were clean. The beasts were fed. The guards still stood in the layered calm of men who believed their master’s name made half the world sort itself before trouble had time to speak.
Dickoff entered under escort and was taken inward fast.
Mihos Dawn was not in a patient mood even before he heard the report.
He had spent the earlier part of the day under the satisfaction of assumed advantage. Dawn House had been pressured. Iron House had begun stage one competently. The lower branch had been forced into reaction. This was how it should be. Mihos had not needed every detail to enjoy the shape of it.
Then Dickoff arrived.
And Mihos understood from his face alone that the morning had turned.
Stephen was present.
Of course he was.
A silent wall of old service and steady eyes near the side of the pavilion, watching as he always watched, hearing everything without looking like he needed to.
Mihos remained seated when Dickoff entered. That was not kindness. That was a hierarchy.
Dickoff bowed his head to him. It was not deep enough to hide the humiliation. It was deep enough to acknowledge it.
Mihos let the silence stretch.
Then he said, "You do not look like a man bringing me good news."
Dickoff answered honestly. "I am not."
There was no point insulting Mihos with a gentle language now. Dickoff might die if he lied to him.
Mihos’s expression cooled by a degree. "Then speak with details."
Dickoff did.
He reported the warehouse situation. The dead. The losses. The missing ledgers. The stripped reserve. The broken confidence. He reported the pattern clearly enough that even a lesser mind would have recognized Sekhmet’s power.