Trading Hearts Book Three the Table: Count chairs. There is always one more.: 3

It opens in peace. That is the trap.The storm of Book Two is spent. Estranged powers reconcile; old enemies share a table; the world exhales and lets itself believe the worst is behind it. Then the true storm arrives - larger than anything before, because this time it is not an accident and not a villain. This time the market clears against a cause that has not yet arrived.In the final movement of Trading Hearts, every account comes due. The three veils over the real answer are lifted one by one - each by the narrator who has controlled what you see since the first page - until the question that has run through three books is finally answered: who has been at the table since before gold was money, and what is the one thing older than the first promise ever made.The Counterparty has a face. The empty chair is counted at last. And the first words of the saga are answered by its last.The Table is the reckoning the whole story was built to earn - power, loyalty, transcendence, and the morning after. The Exchange is open. Take your seat. There was always one more than there appeared to be.