The premise made me think of the Rings as monetary network — each Ring creating a surveillance and dependency relationship between Sauron and the bearer, with the One Ring as the central bank. Power doesn't just corrupt; it corrupts by making everyone else's sovereignty conditional. Curious whether *The Stolguard Incident* has economic undercurrents running beneath the thriller surface. The fractured society / virtual escape premise has obvious parallels to late-empire monetary dynamics — when the real world stops rewarding engagement, people opt out. Is that implicit in the world-building, or is this more pure escapism? Lyn writes about macro seriously enough that I'd be surprised if the fictional world didn't carry some of those concerns.