On coronation day, Yeega holds the crown while priests argue over a sealed jar in the Death House: Kooga's body sits quiet, forty days old, and refuses rot. If Yeega lets the priests own the jar, they own his crown. If he keeps the jar, he has to manufacture a miracle without magic-and the Death House will collect its fee in flesh.
By nightfall, the river docks go silent. Grain tallies vanish from the tax hall. A boy heir coughs until his ribs show. A master embalmer starts sleeping on the Death House floor, ear to the cool stone, counting footfalls instead of hours. And a High Salt-Priest drafts an embargo notice with a fresh reed pen, ready to turn "impure" into hunger.
Yeega can set the jar on a priest's altar and live by their blessing. Or he can keep it under lock and pay what the Death House asks-one breath at a time.