The Quiet

The Finders' cant and code — a way of speaking, signing, and behaving that marks who's in the trade and what they owe, all without a word the guard could swear to.

The Quiet is half secret language, half law. A turn of phrase tells another Finder you're holding; a chalk mark says a house is already worked; a way of not-answering settles whether a debt is paid. Above all the Quiet carries the one rule that keeps the trade breathing — a Finder delivers, and a Finder never sells out another to the Writ. Break the Quiet and no fence, no door, no rope-holder in the Vale will ever trust you again. It is the only thing the Finders truly own.