The Revolution at the Gate
A rising tide of anger reaches the House of Salt
In the capital, far beyond Marenna, the poor had risen against the masters who ruled them.
Word of spread along the coast, carried by frightened travellers and burning news.
Little did Maria know that the storm sweeping the country would soon reach her own gate.
For centuries the great families had been served, and the common people had been forgotten.
Now the forgotten had found their voice, and their anger had been building for generations.
Palaces had been stormed, records had been burned, and old privileges had been swept away.
The Voss name, once honoured, had been marked by the crowd as a symbol of the wealthy few.
Little did the townsfolk imagine how quickly could turn to hatred in hungry times.
Rarely had Marenna seen such crowds gather in its narrow streets, torches raised against the night.
Maria watched from her window as the , long oppressed, surged toward the houses of the rich.
The harbour, which had been closed by war, was now closed again by fear and fire.
Never before had she seen her neighbours look at her house with such open .
The salt in her cellars, once a treasure, had become a mark of the they despised.
Lucien Renard fled the town at the first sign of danger, his promises abandoned like ballast.
Only when he had gone did Maria understand how little he had ever truly cared.
The contracts they had signed had been rendered worthless by the collapse of the old order.
Seldom had a fortune vanished so swiftly, undone not by debt but by history itself.
The gates of the great houses had been battered, and one by one they had fallen.
Maria stood alone before her door as the crowd's voices rose like a gathering sea.
Little did she know that the very servants she had kept would now stand between her and the .
They had been treated with kindness, and that kindness had not been entirely forgotten.
The old cook, who had been fed at that table for thirty years, barred the door with her body.
Never had proven so precious as in that moment of fire and fury.
The house had been surrounded, yet for one night it had not been breached.
Maria realised that all her cleverness had been powerless against the tide of a changing age.
The had come to her gate, and nothing she had known would ever stand again.