228 - The Northern Storehouse

The northern road climbed through low hills before descending into a broad agricultural valley. Subin Vans and his companions had followed Venn Arlo's last confirmed route since leaving Millhaven, stopping at farms and roadside trading posts only when someone had useful information. By midday, they reached Northfield, a settlement built around grain storage, livestock markets, and a collection of old stone warehouses beside the river.

Northfield was smaller than Millhaven but busier than its size suggested. Wagons crowded the market square, merchants negotiated over sacks of grain, and workers unloaded preserved vegetables beneath the supervision of warehouse clerks. The settlement had become an important transfer point since several roads farther south had been closed or restricted.

Subin entered the market with Han Yerin, Park Jae-hyun, Liu Wei, and Ara. Their immediate objective was to find Venn, but they would not spend the entire day questioning strangers. If the broker had passed through Northfield, the local registry and storage offices were the most practical places to begin.

At the commercial registry, a clerk checked the visitor records and found Venn's name from the previous afternoon. He had registered as a travelling broker and requested directions to the northern warehouse district.

"He didn't hire a room through us," the clerk explained. "But he paid the fee to inspect storage facilities. The warehouse supervisor should have his name."

The supervisor, a lean man named Ordan, was overseeing the unloading of a flour wagon when the team found him. He remembered Venn because the broker had asked to inspect a particular storehouse rather than simply requesting the cheapest available space.

"That building is owned by the Northfield Merchants' Cooperative," Ordan said, pointing toward a row of stone structures beyond the river. "It's normally used for goods awaiting transfer. Venn asked whether a small shipment could be kept there without being entered into the ordinary public inventory."

Ara's expression sharpened. "Was he trying to hide the goods?"

"I didn't say that. He asked about restricted access, which is permitted for valuable cargo. But he didn't have a shipment to register, and he wasn't carrying the paperwork required for a reservation. I told him to return with the necessary documents."

"Did he return?" Subin asked.

"No. He left after asking who controlled the building."

Ordan gave them the name of the cooperative's manager, then returned to his workers.

The northern warehouse stood beside a narrow branch of the river. Its thick stone walls and reinforced doors made it suitable for storing valuable goods, but the building appeared quiet compared with the surrounding yards. Two guards watched the entrance, and a clerk sat behind a desk beneath the awning.

Subin presented the team's credentials and explained that they were looking for a broker who had recently asked about storage arrangements. The clerk checked the reservation book, then called for the warehouse manager.

The manager, a woman named Hesta, listened carefully before answering.

"Venn Arlo visited yesterday. He asked about a shipment that might arrive from Windscar, though he didn't give me a seller's name. He wanted to know whether we could receive it without releasing its contents to a third party."

"Did he mention iron?" Ara asked.

Hesta considered the question. "He asked whether we had facilities suitable for iron ingots and metal components. That is common enough here. Several merchants store metal in this district."

"Did he leave any documents?"

"No. He said the shipment had not been finalized."

Subin studied her face, not searching for a hidden meaning but judging whether she had more to say. She seemed irritated by the questions, though not particularly nervous.

"Did you see where he went afterward?"

"He spoke to someone outside the gate. I couldn't hear their conversation. They walked toward the river crossing together, but I don't know whether they continued in the same direction."

"Can you describe the other person?"

"An older man with grey hair and a dark coat. There was a metal clasp near his collar. He carried a walking stick."

It was the same description the team had heard in Windscar and Millhaven. This time, however, the visitor had been seen leaving the warehouse district with Venn rather than merely asking after him.

Jae-hyun glanced at Subin. "Now we have a place where they met and a direction they took together."

"We have a witness who saw them leave together," Ara corrected. "That doesn't tell us whether they were cooperating, arguing, or simply sharing the road."

Hesta pointed toward the river crossing. "If they went that way, they would have passed the old freight yard. It has several abandoned sheds, although the cooperative no longer uses them."

Subin thanked her, and the team crossed the river.

The old freight yard had once served caravans travelling between the agricultural settlements and the mining districts. Most of its sheds were empty now, their wooden doors weathered and their loading platforms partly overgrown. A few independent traders still used the western end to repair carts or store equipment, but the central buildings had been closed for years.

They found fresh wheel marks near a wide shed and recent footprints in the dust beside its entrance. The tracks were too common to identify any particular person, but the shed's lock had been replaced recently.

Ara crouched beside the door. "This lock is newer than the hinges. Someone has started using the building again."

Subin examined the surrounding ground. There were no guards and no obvious signs of a struggle. The door was secured with an ordinary iron lock, not a complex mechanism. The team could have forced it, but doing so without knowing who controlled the shed would turn a search for a missing broker into an unnecessary confrontation.

Liu Wei approached the neighboring repair stall and spoke to the trader working there. After a short conversation, he returned with a name: the shed had recently been rented by a freight contractor called Merovan, who claimed to be storing damaged cart parts.

The team located Merovan in a nearby yard, where several workers were repairing wagon wheels. He was a stocky man with a trimmed beard, and he listened to their questions with visible impatience.

"I rent storage space. That isn't a crime," he said. "If you want to inspect my property, show me a warrant from the local authorities."

"We're not accusing you of anything," Subin replied. "We want to know whether Venn Arlo visited the shed."

Merovan paused briefly before answering. "I know the name. He came to ask about a storage arrangement, but I turned him away. I don't handle merchant contracts."

"Did he arrive alone?"

"No."

"Who was with him?"

"I didn't ask for names. The older man did most of the talking."

"What did they want to store?"

"Metal cargo, according to the broker. I told them the shed wasn't suitable for it."

His answers were plausible, but his initial hesitation suggested he was withholding something. Subin did not press him with accusations. Instead, Ara asked for the rental agreement and offered to have the local registry confirm whether the shed had been declared for commercial use.

Merovan's irritation increased.

"I have workers to pay and carts to repair. I'm not going to spend the afternoon discussing every person who has visited my property."

"Then this should be simple," Subin said. "Show us the rental record, and we'll leave."

Merovan refused.

Subin looked toward the shed. "We won't break in. We'll report the refusal to the Northfield authorities and let them decide whether an inspection is justified."

That changed Merovan's expression. He glanced at the workers, then back at the group.

"Fine. I'll show you the agreement. But you're not taking anything."

He produced a folded document from his coat. It showed that the shed had been rented three days earlier by a trading representative named Halric Sorn. The agreement listed damaged wagon fittings as the intended contents and carried a payment receipt from a local broker.

Venn's name did not appear anywhere on the document.

Ara copied the details while Subin asked whether Merovan had seen any cargo delivered to the shed.

"Two small wagons arrived last night," Merovan admitted. "They unloaded several wooden crates. I didn't inspect them. The men said the crates contained replacement parts."

"Where are they now?"

"They took them away before sunrise."

"Who took them?"

"Halric's men. I don't know where they went."

Merovan's account did not establish that the crates contained iron from Windscar, but it provided a specific lead that could be checked. The team left the yard and went to the Northfield registry to verify the rental agreement and the identity of Halric Sorn.

The clerk found the record after consulting a second ledger. Halric had registered as an independent freight agent several weeks earlier. His business license was valid, but he had not declared any permanent warehouse or regular route.

"He has moved cargo through Northfield before," the clerk explained. "Nothing unusual was recorded against his license. If he used the old freight yard, the shipment should have been listed in the transport register, but I can't find a matching entry."

"Could the cargo have left under another agent's name?" Ara asked.

"Possibly, but I would need the departure records from the river crossing and the northern gate to confirm that."

The clerk agreed to request those records. He also advised them to speak with Northfield's commercial officer, who had authority over unregistered freight storage.

The commercial officer, a middle-aged woman named Sera, took the report seriously. She ordered the old freight yard's rental documents preserved and sent two local guards to inspect the shed. Subin's team accompanied them but remained outside while the guards examined the building.

The inspection found several broken cart components, discarded packing material, and empty spaces where crates had recently stood. There was no iron shipment left behind, and no evidence that Venn had been held there. The guards recorded the findings and sealed the rental agreement for further review.

Sera returned to her office with the team and checked the departure records that had arrived from the river crossing. One entry stood out: a small freight cart had crossed north shortly before dawn, accompanied by two men. The driver had declared ordinary machinery parts, but the description of the load was incomplete.

"That could be Halric's cargo," Sera said. "It could also be an unrelated shipment. I'll send a notice to the next checkpoint and ask them to verify the declaration when the cart arrives."

"Can the checkpoint stop it?" Subin asked.

"If the cargo doesn't match the declared goods, yes. Until then, we have no grounds to seize it."

Subin accepted the answer. The local authorities had taken responsibility for the inspection, and following an unidentified cart across multiple settlements would accomplish little without a reliable link to the disputed iron.

The team returned to the warehouse district to speak with Hesta once more. She remembered that Venn had asked about storage arrangements but could not say whether he intended to ship anything through Northfield. She had no record of a reservation, payment, or cargo declaration under his name.

By late afternoon, their search had established three useful facts. Venn had reached Northfield, met the grey-haired man near the northern warehouse, and visited a freight contractor who later received crates through an arrangement made by Halric Sorn. The team still had no proof that those crates were connected to the Windscar shipment, and Venn's whereabouts after the warehouse meeting remained unknown.

Subin decided they would not continue searching every abandoned building in the district. The Northfield authorities had the documents, the freight records, and the power to inspect the shipment if it arrived. The team's next step was to identify Halric Sorn and establish whether he had a legitimate connection to Venn.

Sera provided a copy of the freight agent's registered address, located in a small settlement called Eastbridge, where several independent carriers maintained offices. She also promised to send Garrick a formal report through the regional commercial network.

That evening, the companions secured rooms at an inn near the river crossing. Ara organized their notes and separated confirmed information from unverified claims. Yerin sat beside Subin while he reviewed the copied rental agreement.

"You were right not to force the shed open," she said. "If we had found ordinary cart parts, Merovan could have used that against us."

"We're here to find the truth, not create a dispute with every person who refuses to answer a question."

She smiled faintly. "Jae-hyun will be disappointed. He was ready to pull the door off its hinges."

"I heard that," Jae-hyun called from across the room.

"You were meant to," Yerin replied.

Their brief exchange eased the tension, and Liu Wei suggested that Jae-hyun could satisfy his urge to break something by volunteering for the next training session. Jae-hyun accepted the challenge immediately, turning the discussion toward sword techniques and sparring rather than the unresolved shipment.

The next morning, the team sent a message to Garrick summarizing their findings. They explained that Venn had travelled through Northfield and met the grey-haired man again, but the evidence did not establish that either man had handled Belric's iron. The old freight yard had been inspected, and the local authorities were checking an undeclared cart shipment.

Garrick's reply arrived before noon. He confirmed that the iron remained secured in Windscar and that the commercial records were being preserved. He also identified Halric Sorn as a name worth checking, since no freight agent of that name appeared in the documents originally supplied by Belric or Soren.

Subin folded the message and placed it with the other records.

Their next destination was Eastbridge. If Halric had arranged the freight movement, his office might reveal who had hired him and where the crates had gone. If he had nothing to do with the disputed iron, they would cross that possibility off the list and continue looking for Venn.

The team left Northfield by the eastern road, following the river toward the next settlement. Behind them, the commercial officer's guards remained at the freight yard, and the checkpoint had been notified to inspect the unidentified cart.

The investigation had moved beyond rumours, but it had not yet produced proof of wrongdoing. Subin intended to keep it that way until the evidence justified a conclusion.