The Rival Yard — Bright Thread, Bitter Teeth

Across another seam, there is a yard that calls itself divine. It shines. It feeds. It promises crossings without cost and sails without sorrow. It is not a god. It is a hunter that learned how to look like generosity.

Names & Signs

• Names used: Bright-Thread, The Gilt Loom, The Smile Without Knots, The False-God of Bright Thread.
• Signs abroad: threads that look too clean; banners that never stain; laughter that does not leave breath on glass.

Nature

• Appetite masked as mercy: it grants passage by eating what the traveler will not miss — then decides that nothing will be missed.
• Boons fail under stress: its gifts gleam until the first squall, then unravel all at once.
• Dominion by dependence: it breeds need by smoothing all edges, then devours when fear returns.

Methods

• Temptation: agents whisper of a place where crossing costs nothing; they pay first fares with bright fiber.
• Replacement: counterfeit ward-fiber and pattern-charts that draw pilots subtly wide of safety, toward its seam.
• Poaching: ambushes at weak edges during storms; snatch-and-bind tactics; unpicking of moorings.

Hunters of the False-God

• Called: Bright Hunts, Smilers, Unpickers.
• Look: lacquered gear, mirror-polished shuttles, no tool shows wear.
• Tell: they flinch at honest work-songs; their laughter measures beats, not jokes.