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The Price of Being Noticed

In the Market, value is what survives attention.

The Veil Market does not hang a sign that says open.

Attention is a currency. Spend it on the wrong name and the ledger shifts in a room you cannot see. Lirael's people trade in discretion the way smiths trade in steel: shaped, tempered, never left raw where it can cut the holder.

To be noticed is not always an honor. Sometimes it is a debt.

What survives in the Market is not the loudest offer. It is what still has a shape after scrutiny — the rumor that stayed useful, the favor that did not snap under use, the silence that bought another day.