Papa had been in a black mood ever since the day she was supposed to wed Jamos Blackwell. Talya remembered how he was when they waited at the docks for the ship to arrive, his face light and awash in joy and what looked like relief. It stayed that way until they got the comm saying Jamos wasn't coming to pick her up, there would be no wedding today, and Papa's smile turned to a poisonous scowl.

He barely left his office nowadays and when he did he snapped at everyone, especially Talya. For the first time in her life Talya cut her father a wide berth.

So she hadn't been trying to eavesdrop. But she'd noticed the blue light of the holoprojector shining from underneath Papa's office door and curiosity got the better of her. She tiptoed up to the door and pressed her eye to the keyhole like she did as a snooping child.

Through the keyhole she saw Papa standing before a hologram of Lord Blackwell, his hands held behind his back to hide the fact they were shaking. What did he have to be nervous about? It wasn't House Harkon's fault the wedding had fallen through.

"Does the connection look like it'll hold on your end?" Papa asked by way of greeting.

"You have more to worry about than the connection, Harkon." Blackwell glowered at him.

"I can pay you back."

"Ha! You might have been able to pay it back when you had two daughters to marry off. Now you don't have any."

Pay back? He must have been referring to the ship Sanya stole, the one intended for Jamos. When Sanya took the craft she hadn't known that she was also stealing the generous down payment the Blackwells had already made. And why should she? Sanya may have designed and built the ship from stem to stern but she'd been left squarely out of the financials. That was more Talya's domain. Papa never spoke of it but she knew that after the blood moon the northern families weren't keen on buying new ships for the end of the world. With business already down, losing the Blackwells' down payment and having to start a new ship out of his own pocket was a devastating blow.

Papa bristled. "I still have a granddaughter!"

Blackwell scoffed. "The Flints have twenty. And all of them come with better dowries than you could ever afford."

"Talya and Jamos can still be married," Papa pleaded. "He may have only gotten nervous and run off for a while. Once he comes back…"

"The reason he ran off was because he was didn't want to marry your daughter at all. He's not coming back for her anytime soon, thank the salt gods if she turns out anything like her wild twin. The deal's off, Harkon. Permanently ."

"Then what am I supposed to —?"

"Remember the agreement I drew up the last time we had to extend this loan, when your brat stole my son's ship?" Blackwell quipped. "I hold a lien on all of your property. The Hall should cover your debt nicely."

"What?! No! I'll figure something out. You can't take my home!"

"You had a chance before this wedding fell through. There's nothing for you to figure out."

"Then I'll find Jamos for you. I'll bring him back so the wedding can go through."

"Like you've had such luck bringing back your own wayward daughter? You'll be looking until Nadd's ghost rises again. Feel free to try though, that way the Hall will be empty when I come to change the locks."

Papa slumped over looking more defeated than Talya had ever seen him. When he spoke he sounded forty years older. "Then please, give me some time to think of how to tell my family. I don't know how…"

She couldn't watch any longer. Talya ran from the door wiping tears from her eyes. She knew business had been bad, but she had no idea it was this bad. Papa had never looked so broken.

Her parents may not have bothered giving her lessons in politics, but Talya knew that if the Blackwells took Harkon Hall away from them, there was no going back. No strategic marriage or stroke of financial luck would make her family anything other than the laughingstock of the north. It couldn't happen.

…

After taking a few minutes to gather her courage Talya swung back into her father's office with the speech she'd come up with "Father I know what's going on and I want to help. I'll do whatever we need to…"

She trailed off when she saw Dalla at the table, having a conversation of her own.

Miara Blackwell, future Lady of the North, raised an eyebrow. "Well, she must be smarter than I thought."

"She always had the head, I just didn't think she'd use it," Dalla said to Miara before she gave her full attention to Talya. "So you found out what's going on?"

Talya nodded, dumbstruck by the scene before her. "You two know each other?"

"No, we don't." Dalla shrugged. "Miara and I have been spying on our respective fathers-in-law since we moved in. We didn't know of each other's actions until we tried to redial their comms at the same time."

"But now that we do, it's wonderful to have an ally." Miara said. "Talya, I'm assuming you heard of the Blackwells' plan to seize the Hall?"

"I was listening at the door. They can't do it!"

"Normally I'd say you have no chance and encourage you to grab as many credits as you can, but luckily for you my father-in-law is a short-sighted man. If you present him with a quick, easy repayment option he might forget about how lucrative the Hall might be in the long run."

"All I need to do is give him credits?" That sounded too easy to her.

"A lot of credits," Dalla clarified. "Your father owes Lord Blackwell millions. Even a partial repayment would be much more than you can get from selling your jewelry. All of it's fake, anyway."

"Well we could get Herron involved. If there are two of us…"

Dalla cut her off. "Herron doesn't know anything about the debts. And even if he did he'd be useless. I've made an exit plan for him, Betha, and myself so we have something when Lord Blackwell decides to collect. I'm not going to risk my daughter for the rest of you. I'm sorry Talya, but you're on your own."

"Financially, at least." Miara cut back in with a soft, sisterly tone. "Dalla and I are more than happy to teach you everything you need to know about getting things to go your way."

Talya blushed. "I know the way the two of you… get things done." She wasn't criticizing them for it, only stating the facts. "But I don't have a husband."

"You're well shot of my brother-in-law. Let me tell you. That boy was a sneak and a thief and …" Miara began but Talya cut her off.

"I'm sure he and I would have been completely incompatible." She still believed that the second Blackwell son would have been better suited to her sister but that ship had sailed, literally. The idea came into her head that very moment. "However, he wasn't the only son of a noble house who was competing for Sanya's and my hand."

"The Bralykburn heir!" Dalla caught on quickly.

Talya nodded. "He was said to prefer me to Sanya anyway…"

" That's not a half bad idea! " Miara's face lit up on her side of the comm connection. " At least you'd have the option of running to the Keep when your own home is repossessed ."

Worry still pained Talya's expression. She said softly, "I was thinking more if the Bralykburns were still willing to pay the brideprice, maybe Papa would have enough to pay back Lord Blackwell. Maybe we could keep our home."

Dalla laid a somewhat compassionate hand on her shoulder, or maybe it was just a gesture of pity. "It's worth a try."