230 - The Company That Never Sent It

Redbrook was a day's journey west of Eastbridge, beyond a stretch of rolling farmland and a line of low, rocky hills. The settlement had grown around a cluster of iron workshops and supply yards, serving miners, blacksmiths, and merchants who needed tools and replacement equipment. Its workshops were smaller than those in Windscar, but several specialized in treating iron for industrial use.

Subin Vans and his companions reached the town shortly after midday. They had sent a preliminary message ahead through a courier, asking the commercial registry to verify a company named on a freight authorization recovered in Eastbridge. The reply had not arrived, so they went directly to the registry office.

The clerk checked the document's stamp and the name recorded beneath it.

"Redbrook Industrial Supply," she said. "The company is registered, but its current business address is in the eastern workshop district. If this authorization is genuine, its records should show who issued it."

"Can you tell us whether the company regularly sends treated iron through Eastbridge?" Ara asked.

"Not without checking the shipment ledgers. The company handles iron fittings, machine parts, and tools. It would be unusual for them to send unmarked bars, but I can't determine that from the name alone."

The clerk gave them directions to the company's office and copied the registry number onto a small sheet of paper.

Redbrook Industrial Supply occupied a stone building between a blacksmith's workshop and a yard filled with wagon frames. Several employees were sorting invoices when Subin's team entered. A woman at the front desk introduced herself as Neral, the company's accounts supervisor, and asked what business they had with the firm.

Ara placed the authorization on the desk.

"We need to verify whether your company issued this document. It was used to arrange the storage and transport of a shipment through Northfield and Eastbridge."

Neral studied the stamp first, then the signature.

"The stamp resembles ours," she said. "But the authorization number is wrong."

She called for the company's records clerk, who brought out the ledger covering recent freight arrangements. Neral compared the document with the entries and found no matching authorization.

"We didn't issue this," she said. "The signature is not from any employee authorized to approve a shipment."

"Could someone have copied an old document?" Subin asked.

"Possibly. We have had customers bring us forged purchase orders before, but I can't tell you who created this one. The stamp could have been copied from an invoice."

Ara examined the paper more closely. The stamp was uneven, and the authorization number had been written in a different hand from the rest of the document.

"Do you recognize the name Merek Doss?" she asked.

Neral shook her head. "Not as an employee or an authorized agent. I can check our customer accounts, but I doubt the name will appear there."

She searched the customer ledger while the others waited. Merek Doss did not appear among the company's regular buyers or registered freight representatives. There was, however, a purchase recorded under a different name: several weeks earlier, a man had bought a small quantity of treated iron bars and paid in full. The transaction was legitimate, but the purchase record did not establish any connection to the crates found in Eastbridge.

"Who made the purchase?" Subin asked.

"Someone registered as M. Daren," Neral replied. "He paid in cash and collected the goods himself. We checked his identification at the time. I can provide the transaction record to the authorities, but I won't claim it was Merek Doss without evidence."

"Did he buy the same type of iron found in Eastbridge?"

"The material was similar, though the quantity was much smaller. It was sold as industrial stock, not as finished equipment."

The information gave them a possible link to the material but no proof that the purchaser and freight agent were the same person. Subin asked Neral to preserve the transaction record and provide a copy to the commercial officer in Eastbridge.

She agreed, then offered to show them the company's current stock. The team followed her into the rear yard, where workers were sorting metal components into marked storage racks. Every batch had a supplier mark and an entry in the inventory ledger. The treated iron from the Eastbridge shipment could not be matched to a registered batch on the basis of the angular symbol alone.

"We mark our shipments so the recipient can verify the source," Neral explained. "That symbol isn't ours. Whoever applied it either used a private mark or wanted the bars to appear connected to a supplier that didn't send them."

"Could it be the mark of another company?" Yerin asked.

"It could be. You would need a regional mark register to check. Redbrook's records only cover our own registered suppliers."

Neral directed them to the regional trade office, which maintained records of licensed metal producers and freight companies. Before they left, she provided a signed statement confirming that Redbrook Industrial Supply had not issued the authorization found in Eastbridge.

The regional trade office occupied a larger building near the market square. Its records clerk checked the angular mark against the registered symbols used by metal producers, mining cooperatives, and equipment manufacturers. After consulting two volumes, he found no exact match.

"That doesn't mean the mark is illegal," he cautioned. "Small workshops sometimes use marks that aren't registered regionally, and private owners can stamp their property. But no major licensed supplier has claimed this symbol."

"Can you identify the buyer listed as M. Daren?" Ara asked.

"Not from the name alone. I can search the transaction records if you provide the date and supplier."

Neral's record contained both. The clerk entered the details and found that the purchase had been registered under a temporary trade permit issued in a neighboring district. The permit was valid at the time of the sale, but it had expired several days later.

The permit holder's address was listed as a rented workshop outside Redbrook, near the southern road.

Subin studied the record. "Is that enough to find the person?"

"It's enough to locate the registered workshop and ask the owner whether the tenant is still there," the clerk said. "It isn't proof that the tenant committed an offense."

They thanked him and headed south.

The workshop stood behind a row of small storage buildings. Its main door was closed, and weeds had grown between the stones of the loading area. A neighboring blacksmith recognized the address and told them that the tenant had left recently, taking his tools and most of his belongings.

"He rented the place for a short time," the blacksmith said. "He worked with metal but didn't forge anything large. Mostly small fittings and repair pieces. He paid on time, kept to himself, and left without causing trouble."

"Did he give a name?" Subin asked.

"Marek, I think. I never learned his full name."

"Did anyone visit him?"

The blacksmith rubbed his chin. "A man in a dark coat came twice. Older fellow, grey hair, metal clasp near the collar. I remember him because he didn't look like a tradesman. He arrived on horseback and waited outside while the tenant packed some crates."

The description matched the man seen in Windscar, Millhaven, and Northfield. This time, the witness had seen him visiting the rented workshop of someone who had bought treated iron.

Yerin glanced toward the empty building. "So the man wasn't merely following Venn. He was also visiting someone connected to the metal."

"That is a reasonable possibility," Ara said. "But we still don't know whether the tenant was Merek Doss, M. Daren, or another person using different names. The records need to be matched before we treat them as one individual."

Subin asked the blacksmith when the tenant had left.

"Three days ago. He loaded the last of his belongings onto a small cart and took the southern road. The older man wasn't with him then."

The team inspected the exterior of the workshop but found no reason to enter without permission. The building was empty, and the neighboring tradespeople had no evidence that anything illegal had taken place there. They returned to the regional trade office and gave the clerk the witness's account.

The clerk added the information to the file and agreed to notify the relevant district authority about the expired permit. He also confirmed that the regional office would send the statement from Redbrook Industrial Supply to Eastbridge, where the shipment remained under guard.

By late afternoon, Subin's team had enough information to draw a practical conclusion. The authorization used by Merek Doss was not genuine. Someone had purchased treated iron under a different name, rented a workshop, and later arranged freight storage through Northfield. The grey-haired visitor had been seen at several points along that chain.

However, the team still had no proof that the treated iron in Eastbridge came from the earlier purchase, or that either shipment was connected to the disputed cargo in Windscar. The records suggested a connection worth investigating, not a completed case.

They sent the new findings to Garrick and the Eastbridge commercial officer. Both were asked to compare the dates, quantities, and transport details against the shipment under dispute. The authorities would decide whether to seek the tenant through the expired permit or request additional documents from the freight agent.

That evening, the companions rested at an inn near the market.

Jae-hyun sat across from Subin, turning a wooden cup between his hands. "We have an unauthorized freight document, an unregistered mark, and a man who keeps showing up near the people involved. At some point, we have to stop pretending these things are unrelated."

"No one is pretending that," Subin said. "We're checking the connection before acting on it."

"If we find the man, we can ask him directly."

"And if we find the wrong man because we assume too much, we lose time and damage an innocent person's reputation."

Jae-hyun gave a reluctant nod. "Fine. But I hope the next lead takes us somewhere with fewer ledgers."

Yerin laughed softly. "You could always learn to read them faster."

"I can read them. I simply prefer swords."

"That explains a great deal," Liu Wei said.

The conversation drifted toward their next training session, giving them a welcome break from the paperwork. Subin remained thoughtful, though. Their investigation was beginning to reveal a chain of freight arrangements that crossed several settlements, but it had not yet established who had changed the terms of Belric's contract or why Venn had left Windscar.

The following morning, a reply arrived from Eastbridge. The commercial officer confirmed that the regional statement had been received and that the treated iron would remain secured. She also reported that the carrier records did not match any authorized transfer from Windscar, making it less likely that the Eastbridge cargo had been sent through the normal commercial channels.

Garrick's message arrived soon afterward. He had compared the information with the disputed contract and found no matching shipment number, seller's authorization, or payment reference. Belric's iron remained accounted for in Windscar. The new cargo might be part of a separate operation, and the authorities would continue investigating it independently.

That distinction mattered. The team could now pursue the forged authorization without confusing it with the original dispute.

Subin gathered his companions and laid out the next step. The rented workshop's former tenant had left by the southern road, and the temporary permit pointed toward a neighboring district. The grey-haired man had visited the workshop, but no witness had seen where he went afterward.

"We follow the permit trail to the district office," Subin said. "We give them the records and ask whether the tenant registered a new address. If he did, we can approach him through the proper channels."

"And if he didn't?" Jae-hyun asked.

"Then we decide whether the remaining evidence justifies looking for him another way."

The team departed Redbrook after breakfast, carrying the signed statement from the industrial supply company and copies of the relevant registry entries. The town's workshops continued their daily work behind them, unaware that a small freight inquiry had uncovered a false authorization and an unclaimed shipment of treated iron.

They were still no closer to Venn Arlo himself, but the investigation had separated two matters that had initially seemed connected. Belric's iron dispute remained with Garrick in Windscar, while the unauthorized cargo and false freight documents were now being handled by the authorities in Eastbridge and Redbrook.

For Subin, that was progress. It reduced the number of assumptions they needed to make and gave them a clear next destination.

The southern road led toward the district named on the expired permit, and the team followed it before the day's traffic grew heavy.