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CHAPTER 6: THE PORTFOLIO
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2026-06-06 04:10:57I acquired the last seven Sterling Pack creditors during the second year of my life in the Free Cities.
The process moved more quickly than it had in the first year. At least, that was what every line of the acquisition plan Helga and I had mapped out suggested. We had spent the first week of the new year bent over the long oak table in the kitchen of the Aldris Lane townhouse, reviewing schedules, projections, and targets until late into the night. Word had traveled. By spring of my second year in the Free Cities, every Sterling Pack creditor in the region knew exactly who I was. They knew Ariadne Voss of Voss Capital was buying. They knew I offered fair prices. They knew I closed deals without wasting time. Most importantly, they knew the Sterling Pack loans sitting on their books were worth far more to me than they would ever be to anyone else. Three of the final seven creditors contacted me first. I never reached out. I waited. And they came. By autumn of my second year in the Free Cities, I controlled all fourteen Sterling Pack loans. Together, those loans carried a face value of two hundred and thirteen million Free Cities credits. According to the acquisition ledger Helga quietly maintained in the townhouse office the same ledger she had started the day I purchased Harren Capital’s loan I had spent one hundred and thirty-four million Free Cities credits to secure them all. The Voss family trust fund was nearly exhausted. Every quarterly statement told the same story. Only eleven million Free Cities credits remained. That balance wasn’t accidental. According to the trust documents, my grandmother, Eleanor Voss, had specifically required that amount to remain untouched forever to cover ongoing Voss family operating expenses. The eleven million wasn’t what mattered. The portfolio was. Two hundred and thirteen million credits in Sterling Pack debt. Every single credit held by one company. Voss Capital. Liraeth, First Free City. Registered owner and sole director: Ariadne Voss. Twenty-four years old. I issued the first formal notice of default on the morning of the first Monday of autumn in my second Free Cities year. The notice came through Voss Capital’s legal counsel. Aldren & Partners. A small three-lawyer firm in the Free Cities that my grandmother had quietly retained back in 2016. The document was forty-three pages long. Every page was packed with legal precision. It outlined the full balance of all fourteen Sterling Pack loans, the accumulated interest, the penalties resulting from missed payments, and a formal demand that the debt be repaid in full within ninety days. The total amount demanded in the notice came to two hundred and sixty-seven million Free Cities credits. According to the Sterling Pack financial records from 2024 records I had obtained alongside the creditor loans the pack’s annual revenue was thirty-one million credits. The Sterling Pack could not pay. Not within ninety days. Not within nine hundred. Not ever. Caelum Sterling’s reply arrived that same week on Thursday. It came through his legal representatives. Greyvane & Sons. A Northern Hollow law firm that had handled Sterling Pack legal affairs for sixty-one years. The response was only four pages. The first three pages contained exactly what any lawyer would expect. Requests for extensions. Appeals for renegotiation. References to Old Law and its protections regarding financial hardship affecting Alpha bloodlines within the Northern packs. Nothing unusual. The fourth page was different. Very different. It contained only a single paragraph. The paragraph read: We note that the current holder of the Sterling Pack debt portfolio is identified in the formal notice of default as Ariadne Voss, formerly of the Northern Hollow Voss noble line. The Sterling Pack requests clarification regarding whether this individual is the same Ariadne Voss who was previously engaged to Alpha Caelum Sterling and whose engagement was terminated in the spring of 2024. I read the paragraph once. Then again. I lowered the document onto my desk. The townhouse office was quiet. Late afternoon sunlight stretched across the polished floorboards, and the faint scent of paper, oak, and old red wine lingered in the room. I reached for the glass King Lysander had poured me three evenings earlier. A bottle from Liraeth. I still hadn’t finished it. I took a slow sip. The wine lingered on my tongue. Then I spoke into the silence of the empty office. “Yes, Mr. Greyvane.” I paused. A small smile touched my lips. “It is.”
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