Stella didn’t move right away, but her gaze slid toward the front door. Keegan’s posture changed beside me in a way that most people would miss, but I felt it instantly. The air around him tightened, not aggressive yet, just alert.
A sharp but layered shout echoed through the air, this time from an indignant goblin. Chairs scraped softly as two patrons shifted toward the window, trying to look without looking obvious about it.
Keegan and I stepped outside to see three beings looking like they wanted to tear into one another. I glanced at Keegan, who looked bewildered but worried, and I returned my gaze to the disagreement.
In the middle of all of it stood a goblin, a shifter, and Luna, who clearly regretted volunteering to stand between them.
The goblin clutched a wooden crate to his chest so tightly his shoulders had crept up toward his ears. I recognized him as one of the town’s delivery goblins, efficient and meticulous to the point of obsession. He lived in the UnderLoom but would occasionally come up to Stonewick.
Facing him was a young shifter from Caleb’s pack. He had that lean, coiled look that suggested speed even while standing still, and his eyes flashed gold in quick, uncontrolled pulses before settling back to brown. If I were the goblin, I’d be worried too.
Between them, Luna held her hands up as if she could physically keep the argument from escalating.
“You cannot simply demand supplies,” the goblin was saying, his voice vibrating with offense. “There is a list. There is an order. We have to collect some of these herbs below the surface, and that takes time. You can’t just rip them from my hands.”
“I’m not ripping them from you,” the shifter shot back, though the tension in his jaw made the word sound fragile. “I told you I would pay more than whatever the person you’re delivering to would.” Goblins usually enjoyed cash over loyalty, so this was a new development of its own.
The goblin’s eyes narrowed on the shifter. “But you reached for it. That is a threat.”
The shifter nearly snarled. “I reached to show I was serious.”
“Life here doesn’t work that way, wolf.”
Luna turned when she saw me and exhaled visibly. “Maeve, thank the Heavens.”
“What happened exactly?” I asked, keeping my voice level.
“He tried to take this,” the goblin said immediately, lifting the crate as evidence.
“I tried to buy it,” the shifter corrected. “We have a fever spreading in our camp. The apothecary said he can’t spare enough, but I saw this goblin with plenty.”
Luna shook her head, and I knew she wanted to say what we were all thinking: that you can’t bully your way into taking something.
“We’re rationing because we have to,” the goblin snapped. “Half the town has doubled in population in a week. We only have so many foragers below.”
“There are pups and a mother who haven’t shifted back properly since yesterday,” he said coldly, and I wondered why Caleb hadn’t mentioned any of this.
Keegan stepped forward. “How many?”
“Three pups,” the shifter replied. “One adult.”
The goblin’s indignation wavered slightly at that, but only slightly.
“And what about our elders?” the goblin asked. “You think they don’t get sick, too? We don’t have endless stores of this. I have specific deliveries for this batch.”
And that’s when it hit me. The Priestess had struck again without even waving a wand or sending shadows.
This was how distrust rooted itself with reasonable concerns and unmet needs. It started small and grew.
“She’s pressing this,” I murmured to Keegan. “This is the Priestess’s doing. She hasn’t reacted to what went on with the orcs because she knew this would happen once we brought everyone here.”
I felt sick.
The shifter’s breathing had grown uneven, not from aggression alone but from fear.
“If we wait,” he said, “the pups and mother could die.”
A small crowd had formed across the street, and I knew so much rested on this one moment. If this turned into a physical confrontation, even a minor one, it would ripple outward. By evening, the story would be retold as wolves grabbing supplies and goblins hoarding medicine. By tomorrow, it would be something bigger.
