The Bobington Insurance Exchange issued its preliminary statement of terms for Kaelmar-route underwriting on Friday afternoon — a sixteen-page document, bound in the Exchange’s customary dove-grey card, that translates the diplomatic framework completed on Thursday into the language of premiums, exclusions, and deductibles.

Twelve of the Exchange’s fourteen member firms have committed to resume writing Kaelmar-route cargo policies from the date of the signing ceremony on Tuesday 24 March. Premiums will be capped at 140 per cent of pre-crisis rates for the duration of the three-month trial period, as stipulated by the Transit Corridor Framework’s insurance annexe. The cap rises to 160 per cent in the event of a six-month automatic extension.

Two firms — which the Exchange declined to name, citing commercial confidentiality — have elected to withhold from the initial underwriting pool, preferring to assess conditions after the first commercial transits. Sources familiar with the Exchange’s deliberations identified the holdouts as smaller specialist marine firms “exercising reasonable caution.”

Sybil Tremayne, senior underwriter at Fairweather & Chalk and chair of the Exchange’s marine committee, read the terms to assembled correspondents from the Exchange’s panelled boardroom on Guildhall Terrace.

“These terms are not a gesture of optimism,” Tremayne said. “They are a commercial assessment of risk, based on the framework as signed. The strait is not yet open. When it opens, we will insure what passes through it. That is our function.”

She was asked whether the terms were generous. “They are adequate,” she said.

Caspar Helmsley of Tidewater Mutual, who five weeks ago declared that “principles do not underwrite cargo,” confirmed that his firm will participate in the initial pool. “The annexes provide what we required — a mechanism for inspection, a schedule for review, and a cap that reflects the residual uncertainty. We are prepared to write.”

Copper closed at 762 florins per tonne on Friday — the eighteenth consecutive daily decline and the lowest level since mid-January, before the Delvarian buildup began. The Eastern Spice Index closed at 281, also a new post-crisis low. Clement Varga of Fernwich Trading House described the market as “no longer pricing in risk. It is pricing in normality.”

Separately, the Ashford Republic’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday evening that it will dispatch a representative to Tuesday’s signing ceremony. Henrik Dahl, the Republic’s senior trade attaché in Bobington, will attend as an observer on behalf of Foreign Minister Luisa Vandermeer. Dahl, 41, has served in the Bobington posting for three years and is expected to take the Ashford Republic’s observer seat on the Joint Maritime Inspection Commission once it is formally constituted.

The Republic’s involvement reflects the framework agreed in the fourth session on 12 March: the Inspection Commission will comprise three Delvarian members, three Thessarine members, and one Ashford Republic observer — a structure that acknowledges the Republic’s longstanding interest in Narrow Sea navigation without conceding the bilateral character of the agreement.

Professor Elias Thornbury noted the significance. “The Ashford Republic proposed mediation on 17 February and was refused by Delvaria. Now they have a seat at the table — not as mediators, but as witnesses. It is a more durable position. Vandermeer will be satisfied.”

At the Delvarian consulate on Ashbury Lane, Consul Pehr Lindqvist’s office lights were on until after 9 PM. Consul Elara Miren of Thessara was observed leaving the Foreign Office through the east entrance at 7:40 PM, carrying what appeared to be a document folder.

The Kharstad Gazette ran no mention of the Insurance Exchange’s terms in its evening edition. Its front page concerned spring agricultural subsidies.

Tuesday’s ceremony is expected to begin at 11 AM at the Foreign Office on Chancery Row. Marchetti will preside. Hale and Soren will sign on behalf of their respective governments. Both the Thessarine and Delvarian governments are expected to send senior officials to witness the signing.

Thirty-five days since Hale arrived in Thessara. The ink, at last, is being prepared.