Mava Salte Bridge Closed: Railing Damage Snarls Market Traffic – CIN News

A stone bridge near the palace is closed after “an incident.” Traders say the timing could not be worse.

MAVA SALTE — CIN News | Filed at dusk, the same day as the shuttle crash
By CIN correspondent, Mava Salte

One of Mava Salte’s busiest bridges is closed tonight. A large section of its stone railing is now at the bottom of the river.

Merchants on the far bank say the closure cuts them off from customers in the poorer quarter. “First the shuttle, now the bridge,” said a Silvian fruit seller. “Nobody can reach me. My spiral fruit will not keep.”

What happened to the railing

Witnesses say imperial soldiers sealed both ends of the bridge in the early afternoon. They had trapped a small group in the middle. Then a diamond-shaped Rovian warship with flaking red paint came in low over the river and opened fire.

CIN must be clear about this part. Soldiers died on that bridge. Witnesses describe screams, bodies and smoke. CIN does not celebrate any of it. These were people, and somebody will be waiting for them tonight.

The warship hovered with its loading ramp open beside the railing. Witnesses say the trapped group jumped aboard and the ship escaped. Silvian fighters chased it toward the Great Lake. CIN could not confirm how the chase ended.

Some onlookers say the ship looked like a famous vessel from the war. CIN could not verify this either.

Also reported

Earlier the same day, sirens sounded from the palace prison. A source in the poor quarter says a tunnel collapsed underground with “a bang like the end of the world.” Nearby, a well-known establishment emptied all at once. Its hostess was overheard saying that this “will be the end” for her.

One rumor is spreading faster than any other, and CIN cannot confirm it. It says the prisoner the Empress was keeping under the palace is no longer there. Some people are naming him: the Wanderer.

“I saw an old man carried across that bridge,” a helper said quietly. “Thin as a reed. If it was him…” He did not finish the sentence. Then he said: “No more slaves.”

The bridge is expected to reopen within a few rotations.

FROM THE DESK
Bridges connect people. We will follow the repairs closely. — Grezk

CIN — Truth travels faster than the King’s ships. Sometimes it jumps.