-
@ 9171b08a:8395fd65
2025-02-25 14:53:19
Rein sat with her back against the cold steel of the jail cell, wrists and ankles bound.
She hadn’t seen light or another human face in almost two weeks. The grinding and whirling of the Guardian’s mechanical gears was the only thing to break the silence, its daily arrival at noon serving as her only reminder of time. It brought her food, but nothing else; not a word, not a gesture of humanity.
In her waking moments, she sat and replayed the events that landed her in jail, and in her slumber, those thoughts morphed into haunting nightmares with specters stalking her in hell. Hell was no longer a distant fear; it had found her. Her fate now rested in the hands of the man she once considered her best friend. Whatever evidence he was putting together would serve to either absolve her or condemn her.
A sharp beam of light pierced the darkness of the jail cell from the cell block entrance. The overhead lights came on, and she stood as David, Rein’s partner and closest friend, appeared before the cell bars.
He stared at his feet and said, “Today's your trial.”
Rein struggled to keep her eyes open from the intense brightness over the overhead lights and said, “That wasn’t nearly enough time to gather evidence.”
David pressed his lips together, eyes fixed on the floor. “I had your back on this, Rein.” Then he shook his head, and as Rein finally overcame the harsh brightness, she noticed he was staring into her eyes. “The evidence is damning. And, well, something pretty terrible has happened that has the government cracking down harder than ever.”
“Something terrible? What happened?” asked Rein.
“I would’ve never thought you were in so deep with this.” He seemed personally outraged when he said, “After everything we’ve been through together, after everything *you’ve* sacrificed for this city. You’ve been pretending this entire time. I’ve never known the real you.” He scoffed. “Yet there you are.”
“C’mon, David, you don’t actually think—”
David raised a hand and said, “Stop. Don’t try that shit with me. You’re lucky to even be getting a trial.”
Two Guardians entered the cell block and came to parade rest behind David. He opened the cell, and the Guardians stepped in.
“What did you find? What happened?” asked Rein.
The Guardians seized Rein’s shoulders and pushed her forward, past David.
“What did you find, David?” Urged Rein.
David remained silent. He simply watched as the Guardians took her.
A hush fell over the precinct as officers gathered around the flickering television in the corner of the reception room. Flashing across the screen were the haunting images taken from an aircraft of a city on fire, thousands of black silhouettes infiltrating the city walls. The words ***Shadow Crawlers Strike, Orion Dome In Ruins*** were emblazoned the bottom of the newscast.
Rein strained against the Guardian’s grasp to try and get a closer look at the screen and gasped, “Chronos have mercy.”
Those standing before the television turned and stared at her. Those seated at their desks stood at the sight of the Guardians ushering Rein through the offices, and within seconds, the precinct was heavy with tension. Everyone she had cared about now gaped at her with a fierce look of betrayal. Though Rein wished she could explain herself with a compelling defense, she could tell she was as good as dead to them.
---
The vehicle transporting her to the courthouse was as dark as the cell she had been locked up in. Rein ground her teeth and stared at the ray of light that shone through the slit in between the vehicle doors, contemplating what she had just seen on the precinct television.
After several minutes of toiling in the darkness with her own thoughts, the vehicle halted, and its doors opened at the hands of the two Guardians who towered over the roof of the hovercraft.
Many of the city people’s eyes, imbued in different shades of red, turned to stare as Rein stepped out. Their gazes were not so much filled with judgment as they were with fear. She stepped onto the walkway with her head sagged, ashamed to look at the very people she had sworn to protect.
> Join the furnace of the Empire! Invest in Elius today and be a part of the Industrial heart of Aurial.
Rein clenched her fist as she contemplated the words on the crumpled flyer laying on the sidewalk beside her foot. She couldn’t help but think of what her father had been up to in that city.
She had never paid much attention to the image of the man on the flyer, his arms crossed and his head held high before a massive furnace that sparked embers into the four corners of the paper. The silhouette of a building was portrayed on one corner, a soldier held a weapon on another, the image of a child holding a toy on the bottom right, and a family held up a shirt on the remaining corner.
Those flyers were hung up throughout the precinct offices, inside coffee shops, and gathering places, attempting to attract the wealth that easily found itself in the pockets of the kind of people that lived in Roxis. It seemed to have worked on her father.
***But what had he been up to?***
Rein never understood why her father had abandoned Roxis for Elius, nor had he ever offered an explanation. As a financial hub, Roxis attracted wealth and intellect, leaving cities like Elius with a rougher class of laborers— many of whom turned to crime to escape extreme poverty and hard work in the very factories exhibited on the promotional flyer.
The city of Roxis had been good to Rein. Though many a passerby would think differently seeing her now with her wrists and ankles shackled as she walked up the steps of the Judgment House. She’d grown to be a God-loving woman and spent most of her adult life protecting the city from criminals the likes of which the people walking by, now, would think she was.
One of the Guardians towering at her side nudged her shoulder, and with the artificial voice generated from within its chest said, “You must move along, Miss Lancer.”
The robot’s hand ushered her forward, and a ray of sunlight nearly blinded her as she gazed upon the Judgment House made almost entirely of glass and marble.
The crest of Aurialian Empire above the entrance of the building made her pause. Her eyes lingered on the star that lay at the center of the red and blue shield of Ariel, the archangel. A character that looked like an angular and unfinished number eight with a line drawn through the middle sat like a crown above the words "***Out of God, An Empire***", inscribed around the crest of the Aurilian Empire.
The symbol of peace felt like a cruel joke now. She had once sworn to uphold the empire’s sanctity, yet here she was, condemned by it.
***Episode 2 coming soon...***
---
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed this episode, let me know with a zap and share it with friends who might like it too!
Your feedback sends a strong signal to keep making content like this!
Interested in blog posts? Follow @Beneath The Ink for great short stories and serialized fiction.
More short stories you might like from Fervid Fables:
nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpyt3kz9079njd5g0fs5rxhtg8g9wdwkdar65kuhaujfyajpetlt9qq2kx6zzdap9s3nnde5hy7f5wej57d2twp54y82h07y
nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpyt3kz9079njd5g0fs5rxhtg8g9wdwkdar65kuhaujfyajpetlt9qq2h5etx2fghgumyg3mhjanewgeysa6wdfmrs85l27m
-
@ 85bdb587:7339d672
2025-02-25 14:14:57
## Marty's Bent
Since mid-2022 the Fed has been reigning in its balance sheet via a process called quantitative tightening (QT), in which they allow some of the debt assets they hold to come to maturity without reinvesting in them. This leads to a reduction in the Fed's balance sheet and is done to remove the excess liquidity introduced to the markets during the COVID crisis so that inflation can be reeled in. On top of this, the Fed is hoping that the extraordinary measures it took to step in during a time of crisis allowed the banking system to get their houses in order in preparation for a period of relatively tighter liquidity. Ideally, everyone took the time and effort to clean up their balance sheets, properly manage their duration risk, and get themselves on solid footing to move forward without the Fed stepping in to prop up the market.
At its peak, the overnight reverse repo facility had around $2.36T of liquidity in the form of debt instruments like treasuries and mortgage backed securities available to banks, money market funds and certain government enterprises. These entities lend the Fed cash for these instruments and get interest back in return. This acts as a mechanism the Fed can leverage to keep short-term rates in line with wherever their targets are at any given point in time. Over the last ~13 quarters the Fed has been slowly but surely letting these markets drain and, as of last Friday, they currently sit at $70.8B. At its current pace the reverse repo facility should be completely drained by the end of next month or beginning of April.
The question on everybody's mind is, what happens once the reverse repo markets are empty?
The last time the Fed embarked on QT was in October 2017. It drained the reverse repo over the course of a little less than two years before the market was drained and the overnight rates in the market spiked into the low teens in September of 2019. Many don't remember this, but it was a "holy shit" moment that forced the Fed to create new facilities overnight to band aid over the hemorrhaging. Coincidentally, a few months later COVID would overtake the world and the Fed had a convenient excuse to double the monetary base well above $6T.
If September 2019 is an example of exactly what happens when the reverse repo market drains, we may be in for a liquidity crunch. However, the Fed is posturing that it has learned its lessons from the 2019 rate spasm and has adjusted some things accordingly to ensure a smoother transition from a state of excess liquidity to a state of significantly less liquidity. Particularly, more control over SOFR and how it interacts with this market. If we reach the point where the reverse repo markets have been successfully drained without a 2019-like spasm, the Fed will then move on to the excess liquidity sitting on the balance sheets of commercial banks and continue their journey to try to reel in inflation.
President Trump certainly isn't making the Fed's job easier with promises of lower domestic taxes and the levying of aggressive tariffs, which could both be inflationary. I'm sure Jerome Powell is praying that DOGE continues their swift work and gets the signal out to markets that the US government is committed to getting its fiscal house in order to make treasuries more appealing to the market so that rates can float down.
I have no idea exactly what is going to happen, but I have a feeling that a liquidity crunch is on the horizon. It may not be once the reverse repo market is drained. I would not be the least bit surprised if the work the Fed has done behind the scenes to ensure a spasm like we experienced in 2019 doesn't happen is successful. Though, it likely only buys some time and delays the inevitable. As my good friend Parker Lewis likes to say, "There's too much debt and not enough dollars." At some point, QT will hit a point where it cannot be sustained because too many dollars have been pulled out of a system with ever increasing amounts of debt that need to be serviced with dollars. Whether it happens when the reverse repo market is drained or at some point after the Fed starts unwinding the excess liquidity on bank balance sheets isn't really that important.
We're getting early warning signs that a liquidity crunch may be near with the mad dash for bringing physical gold into the US, the VIX spiking above 20 earlier today and bitcoin "crashing" toward $90,000. Volatility is increasing at a time when the reverse repo market is almost tapped and the world is a bit uncertain as it tries to figure out the ramifications of Trump's blitzkreig his first month in office.
For those scratching their heads about the price of bitcoin falling during a time like this, it is pretty typical. Bitcoin is traded 24/7/365, has a ton of liquidity, and is easy to buy and sell. When markets sense volatility, bitcoin is usually one of the first assets to be sold off as investors try to sure up their cash balances and pay off debts. It is usually the first and quickest to move lower, but also the first and quickest to move higher when the dust has settled. I find it hard to believe that the price of bitcoin will stay down long if it falls considerably.
The fundamentals have never been stronger and too many people have been waiting for an opportune buying opportunity to pass it up. The question is how many of those looking for a buying opportunity will have dry powder and be liquid if and when it happens.
## Bitcoin's Institutional Moment: Big Players Are Entering the Game
Bitcoin's journey into mainstream financial markets is accelerating. During our conversation last week, Peruvian Bull highlighted several key milestones, including Abu Dhabi's $430 million position in Bitcoin ETFs and regulatory progress with the SEC's SAB 122, which now allows banks to custody Bitcoin. This fundamental shift isn't just about price – it represents a structural change in how traditional financial institutions view Bitcoin as a legitimate asset class.
"*This is a massive opportunity for bitcoin companies - go start a custody service and get a bunch of bitcoiners together and teach institutions how to safely custody their bitcoin.*" - [Peruvian Bull](https://x.com/peruvian_bull)
As I've observed through our work at Ten31, there's a growing recognition that a Bitcoin treasury strategy makes sense for both public and private companies. We're seeing this with MicroStrategy, Tesla, Bitcoin miners, and potentially GameStop. More importantly, the infrastructure is being built by major institutions like State Street and Citibank to support this adoption. While gold has the established financial plumbing, Bitcoin's institutional rails are being constructed rapidly, setting the stage for the next wave of adoption.
TLDR: Major institutions building Bitcoin infrastructure signals mainstream adoption
Check out the [full podcast here](https://youtu.be/aHzPTDDPXfU) for more on gold market disruptions, GameStop's potential Bitcoin strategy, and the looming debt crisis that's creating perfect conditions for Bitcoin adoption.
## Headlines of the Day
El Salvador Boosts Bitcoin Reserve - via [X](https://x.com/i/trending/1894181975528763539)
Jamie Dimon Sold $233.7M in JPM Stock - via [X](https://x.com/MartyBent/status/1894175451209220205)
Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming Rejected Bills for SBR - via [X](https://x.com/SimplyBitcoinTV/status/1894071294653604257)
## Bitcoin Lesson of the Day
Bitcoin uses cryptographic **keys** to secure **transactions**. A private key, a secret random number, allows you to spend bitcoin, while a public key, derived from the private key, is used to receive bitcoin.
The public key is hashed and encoded into a Bitcoin address (e.g., 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa), a shorter, user-friendly string shared to receive funds. Private keys must be kept secure—losing them means losing access to your bitcoin, and anyone with your private key can spend it.
Addresses are generated from public keys via hashing (SHA-256 and RIPEMD-160) and include a checksum for error detection. Bitcoin wallets manage these keys, often using seed phrases to recover them. Understanding keys and addresses is fundamental to securely using Bitcoin.
[Full Learnmeabitcoin.com post here](https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/guide/keys-addresses/)
ICYMI [Fold](https://foldapp.com/credit-card?r=BgwRS) opened the waiting list for the new Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card. Fold cardholders will get unlimited 2% cash back in sats.
**[Get on the waiting list](https://foldapp.com/credit-card?r=BgwRS) now before it fills up!**
$200k worth of prizes are up for grabs.
Ten31, the largest bitcoin-focused investor, has deployed $150M across 30+ companies through three funds. I am a Managing Partner at Ten31 and am very proud of the work we are doing. Learn more at [ten31.vc/funds](https://ten31.vc/funds).
-
@ 6a6be47b:3e74e3e1
2025-02-25 14:14:41
Hi frens,
While drawing this fly 🪰 👇🏻
nostr:nevent1qgsx56ly0wcj7gwasrc7707l9px39g5nzn82p35akhkdqj448e6w8cgqyrrnhgtqqfvcvf007gtxmffrhd8zw5j0t93cuxc3yrykl2dzyp3tvj4hcjx
I started thinking about how to make my art stand out. Maybe I should focus on making it more appealing—or at least improving its presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against making my work more consumable, but the marketing side of things takes so much time away from actually creating art. It’s sad that sometimes it feels less about delivering high-quality work and more about turning it into “content.”
Honestly, that can be exhausting. Like Fall Out Boy said, “all this effort to make it look effortless.”It’s not really my style to turn my art—or the process of creating it—into content. That’s why I sometimes struggle with crafting or presenting it in a way that fits today’s trends.
Sometimes, the pressure to make my art presentable is so overwhelming that it makes me feel like not creating at all. And when it doesn’t yield the kind of recognition or financial support I hope for after all that effort, it can be really disappointing. It’s like watching all that hard work slowly erode my soul. It’s tough to keep going when it feels like my art isn’t being valued in the way I wish it could be.
I want to be clear: this isn’t me dissing anyone. You do you, and I’ll do me. As Crowley would say, “Do what thou wilt.” What I’m really trying to figure out is how to find that sweet spot—where I can keep up with the times and make my art more appealing without losing my soul in the process.
I’m trying my best, and I know I’ll make mistakes along the way, but I’ll keep going. I just wanted to share these thoughts with you because I’m usually pretty upbeat here—maybe even a little superficial at times—but this is me being _more_ real with you.
Art is such a huge part of my life, and through my work, I’m already sharing something raw and personal with you. But now you also know why my presentation might sometimes feel simple or plain. I’m working on finding that balance, and I’ll get there eventually.
Godspeed, my frens