Port Laveau logged another unremarkable evening by most measures — nine souls stirring across the parish, violence scarce, the Conjure district and Laveau waterfront as active as anywhere gets on a slow tide. Quiet, the Sheriff's Office assures us. Peaceful. Residents would do well to believe that.

Yet dockworkers near the Blackwater slips report the Serpents Den shuttered before midnight — unusual for an establishment that never sleeps — while figures in long coats were observed moving cargo toward the water under no visible light source. Symbols, similar in character to markings recently spotted in Tenebrae and Salopri territory, were found chalked on two pilings by dawn, then gone by noon. Baptême and Rook were not available for comment. Neither was the fog.

The Ledger reminds citizens that curiosity about private business arrangements is both unhealthy and unnecessary. The water keeps its secrets. So should you.