I didn't take Vale either.
It went against every instinct in the council we had the hand now, caught reaching for bait, and Bron wanted him in a cell by morning. But taking Vale would be the same mistake as taking Harrow, one level up. Vale was the hand. But a hand still serves a head, or a purpose, and I didn't yet know which. Arrest Vale, and whatever the resistance was truly building toward would go dark, and I'd have decapitated a plot without ever learning what it was for.
"We watched the cart to find the hand," I told the council. "Now we watch the hand to find the purpose. Vale reached for a banner a legitimate Hale heir to rally the old nobility. That tells me what the faction lacks. It doesn't tell me what it plans. A resistance that wants a banner is a resistance planning to do
