The council held together for exactly as long as Gotham remained in ruins.
Lord Wayne brought order to the meetings.
Lord Scurlock brought ledgers, contracts, and an unsettling knowledge of where every surviving coin had gone.
Triad Elder Wang kept the markets moving when no one else could.
Godfather Lionel made certain that food reached the districts that had once belonged to his enemies.
Grandmother Bright listened to everyone, spoke little, and somehow knew which promises would be broken before they were made.
Together, they were almost a government.
Then City Hall reopened.
The first argument concerned taxes.
The second concerned who had the authority to collect them.
By the third, Lord Wayne and Lord Scurlock were no longer speaking directly to one another.
Wang accused the nobles of rebuilding Gotham for themselves.
Lionel accused Wang of using the shortages to strengthen the Triad.
Scurlock produced figures proving that everyone was stealing from everyone else.
Grandmother Bright merely sighed.
Outside, the citizens watched.
They had fought a tyrant and discovered that tyranny was not the only thing that could make a city miserable.
The council’s greatest weakness was also its greatest strength: none of its members trusted the others enough to surrender power.
And so they watched one another.
Wayne watched Scurlock.
Scurlock watched Wang.
Wang watched Lionel.
Lionel watched Wayne.
Grandmother Bright watched them all.
For a time, this was enough.
Gotham recovered.
The bridges reopened.
Workshops filled with smoke.
The hospitals gained roofs.
Children returned to schools where teachers had begun replacing portraits of Highlord Macdonald with maps of the new republic.
Yet beneath the streets, something was changing.
Workers repairing a sewer beneath the old South Quarter discovered that their tools were vibrating.
Then came the sound.
Three slow turns of enormous gears.
A pause.
Three more.
The foreman ordered the men out.
That night, beneath Gotham, the Dragonheart and Clockwork body moved.
And somewhere inside City Hall, Grandmother Bright suddenly woke from sleep.
She had heard the same rhythm before.
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Dreamquest 