The ship from Bazi ties up at a dock in Brundisium, gets met by a port official and pays its berth fee and a ramp is lowered to the pier, and several men disembark and start to set up a makeshift booth next to the base of the ramp, and slaves carry cargo off the ship and stack it next to the booth for display. As this was happening. the man that was given the bundle from the previous night fetches it, carries it to the port offices and speaks to the highest official there, and says the words he was told to say. He shrugs at the man's confused look and both men get frustrated because neither knows what the other is talking about. One seemed to want to drop off what looked like trash in his office, the other wanting some sort of compensation for delivering important mail. The deliverer of the package was sent...well, packing, without a bonus and was followed to see what ship he came from, which was marked down. The official then demanded someone take the trash out and put it in a bin somewhere.
One of his underlings did so, but skipped the bin and went into the city with it, having heard the conversation and was told to listen for certain words and to act accordingly. This package was taken into an alley and opened, sorted through, and the papers removed but not read, and the trash was then tossed away. Now carrying a much lighter and less smelly package, he went to the Administration Cylinder and after some political red tape was allowed to hand over the papers to one of the Council members, who dismissed the underling back to his job, and took the papers to the Administrator who read them, and snorted.
"They can't be serious.", he said, as he passed the paper and map to those councillors present. "This has got to be some sort of ruse." The note was brief but to the point. Its message, that Cos would be attacking Brundisium, along with a possible invasion route map. Several locations were noted as possible supply dumps, a couple of hidden landings and a cipher.
One of the councillors was a Scribe and began to trace the map, copying it, and spoke while she did so, "I'll have these locations scouted out just in case, maybe a few tarnsmen can just...randomly pass nearby and get a look. Bring some firepots with them, too." She made two copies, and slid them over to other members present. This was valueable stuff even if it were just a ruse. But she had a feeling it wasn't. Things have been too quiet lately, and people tend to get stroppy if they sit for too long.
"Alright. Good. If it turns out the note here is true, we will take preemptive measures. And may the Priest Kings help any Cosian ships in the harbor at the time." Other orders were given, most wouldn't be noticed by the citizenry, but a few notices were put up on the public boards telling those that were interehsted that positions were opening for laborers and sailors in the harbor, and military pay was going up a small amount. Training would be increasing for soldiers, and openings were happening there too. Sadly, taxes would be going up somewhat, but considering how money was easily flowing at the time, no one complained other than a few mutters about how cheap things were in teir younger times.
People were also encouraged to store food, water and staple items, which some already did, but people started to get suspicious. They knew what all this meant, when they read the notice that the harbor chains would be lowered a few hours after dark from that day until further notice. Somebody, was causing trouble, and the Adminstrator's way of dealing with it was to be overly prepared, and to make the enemy wish he were never born. And not necessarily in that order. They had allies they could call upon. They had mercenaries they could pay. Thanks to the water purification plant they had an almost never-ending source of clean water though it didn't taste all that great, boiled water never does.
But they wondered who the troublemakers were, and this started a trend of spying on neihghbors, and espionage became a daily game. More notices were put out, which helped, the Council saying uninimously that no true citizen of Brundisium would slander his fellow citizen and that frivilous court cases would be met with fines, and no one liked fines. In all, what happened was the citizenry became aloof, distant and in some cases borederline hostile to foreigners. Violence was rare, but the first few weeks were very tense, and guard patrols and the Warriors of the city were kept very busy with crowd control and guarding the foreign merchants. Things calmed down but it was the calm you get when someone had ran their mouth trashtalking for a long while, then was silent, and you're wishing it was over but you knew, that if one more word came out of that mouth, you were going to hit it with a truck.
A cold calm. It wasn't what the Administrator and his Council wanted, but it was the best they could hope for in the circumstances. In this city, everyone knew just about everyone or knew someone who did. It would be hard to hide infiltrators and spies, during this time. People would be watching, waiting, for someone to make a mistake. That poor sod wouldn't last an hour.