The port of Kühlhaven clings to the Baltic's frozen edge, its lifeblood the amber trade that pauses when the sea turns to iron each winter. Inside the stone Assay Office, every lump of amber is weighed on brass scales before it leaves, the numbers scratched into ledgers by candlelight. The guild masters are meticulous, suspicious men who trust only arithmetic—until the arithmetic begins to lie. Outside, the world is white silence, broken by the groan of ice and the chime of sleigh bells. Inside, the air is thick with resin dust and quiet accusations. The assayers, clerks, and shipmasters are bound by cold and commerce, each carrying secrets as carefully as they carry their scales. A single gram, invisible to the eye, becomes a crack that spreads through the season of darkness.