Chapter 41 - The Three-Hour Banquet
Eli drew the problem on a whiteboard.
Victor: distribute debt fast, hurt many people, prevent breach.
Ren: destroy containment fast, let consequences happen, end the system.
Eli: distribute slowly with consent and support, but run out of time.
Reggie added a fourth line.
Reggie: move to Portland.
"Denied," Eli said.
"Had to ask."
The Ledger recalculated every scenario.
[Projected Maw breach: 9h 11m]
[Projected full debt return at current rate: 421 days]
They needed speed without coercion.
The People's Ladle's limit was not magical throughput.
It was consent.
Each participant had to understand what they accepted.
"What if we ask everyone at once?" Tasha said.
The room went quiet.
Seattle had emergency alert systems. Local news. Radio. Social media. Hearth network channels. Tens of thousands already knew Eli from the blackout kitchens.
Dana Ruiz stared at him.
"You want the city to broadcast a request asking residents to voluntarily experience supernatural cravings to help dissolve an underground appetite monster."
"When you say it like that—"
"There is no better way to say it."
Owen rubbed his forehead.
"Could call it a public-health emergency."
Dana looked at him.
"Could call lying a felony."
Eli refused to hide the truth.
That was the entire point.
Informed consent meant informed.
Grant, still Victor's prisoner, had access to NourishNow's media network if they could free him.
The mayor's office could authorize emergency broadcast if they had evidence of physical risk.
Madam Sato had thirty years of Nine Banquet records.
Cho had documentation of Hollow containment.
For once, magical secrecy was the enemy.
"We go public," Eli said.
Victor called almost immediately, as if he had heard.
Maybe he had.
"If you expose the Hearth world, panic will accelerate the Maw."
"Maybe."
"You are gambling with millions."
"You've been gambling with them without telling them."
Victor's voice hardened.
"People do not respond rationally to impossible information."
Eli looked at the community volunteers working around him.
"You keep saying people can't handle choices because you never let them practice having one."
Victor hung up.
Ren sent a message five minutes later.
I WILL NOT STOP YOU FROM ASKING.
That surprised Eli.
A second message came.
I WILL STOP ANY SYSTEM THAT REWARDS THEM FOR SAYING YES.
Fair enough.
The redesigned Ledger already generated Insight Qi, not moral-points-per-meal. Participants would receive no supernatural reward.
They would help because they chose to.
The mayor did not believe them.
Then Jian let a fraction of the Maw manifest beneath City Hall.
Black teeth appeared in a conference-room shadow.
The mayor believed them very quickly.
At 8:30 p.m., every local channel interrupted programming.
Eli sat under studio lights wearing a clean shirt Mei had ironed because apparently apocalypse did not excuse wrinkles.
A producer counted down.
Three.
Two.
One.
Eli looked into the camera.
"Hi. My name is Eli Chen. Until last week, I washed dishes for a living."
Reggie whispered off-camera, "Strong credentials."
Eli continued.
He told the truth.
Not every secret. Enough.
A spiritual system under Seattle had stored human cravings for generations. It was failing. A safe method existed to return the burden gradually, but they no longer had gradually.
"If you volunteer," Eli said, "you may experience an old craving, fear, or hunger more strongly for a short period. Don't do it alone. Don't do it if you're medically or psychologically unsafe. We have support locations. You can say no. Saying no does not make you selfish."
That last sentence mattered.
"We need help. But we don't own your help."
The broadcast ended.
For twenty seconds, nothing happened.
Then the first opt-in registered.
A cook at a diner in Ballard.
Then seventeen.
Then four hundred.
Then six thousand.
The People's Ladle began glowing in Eli's hand.
[Consenting Hearth participants: 18,443]
[Projected dissolution time: 12h 07m]
Still too slow.
Eli's heart sank.
They needed three hours.
Then the city response changed.
People were not only volunteering individually.
They were organizing support circles before accepting debt.
Churches reopened.
Recovery groups added meetings.
Therapists volunteered telehealth sessions.
Restaurants paired meals with community tables.
The support density increased processing speed.
[Projected dissolution time: 7h 40m]
Then 5h 12m.
Then 3h 49m.
Almost.
A final alert appeared.
[Ren Chen has begun severing primary Hearth Engine.]
[Time to uncontrolled breach: 2h 58m]
Ren had kept his promise to let people choose.
Now he was forcing them to prove their choice could survive without the old machine.
The Three-Hour Banquet had exactly three hours to become real.
---
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