Swamped

You've seen the book before, at the ship's naming ceremony. Somebody rushed in and flung it at one of the Lansor dignitaries, shouting something about freeing the mountain people.

You had a talk with one of the more politically astute sailors about it later. There was apparently a longstanding border dispute with Kandria over a mountain range, where one of their more traditionalist tribes still lived. Both countries claimed it but the tribe wanted independence. Activists who had taken an interest in the matter tended to focus pressure on Lansor, for the simple reason that being an activist of any sort in Kandria was a good deal less safe.

The book was about a dozen years old and had become a symbol of the respect the mountain tribes had once held. Its authors were supposedly hiding out somewhere in the kingdom, with several factions who wanted them gone.

That's how you know the book must be out of time. It won't be written for years. But it's also not something just anyone would have.

The activism predates the book by decades. You suspect that whoever brought it here means to use it as a sign of goodwill towards a local group - perhaps in sincere hopes that it will aid with independence, or perhaps to manipulate the group for their own ends. And while you weren't much of an activist of any stripe in your youth, you know where they tended to gather.