The Domini saga

Nhal lays Maelin’s ledgers across the office desk, weighing their curling pages with a brass key ring. Upstairs, the keeper and two couriers remain unconscious and securely bound.

Slaan works a narrow blade into the seam and lifts the hidden panel. Beneath account sheets rests a sealed copy marked with Maelin’s three-hook cipher.

The notation identifies the recipient as Odran Pell and gives a date from three nights earlier. A second line orders him to conceal the original until Maelin arrives.

From below, Bren’s voice carries up the stair, asking whether the search has found anything useful. Nhal keeps one hand on the sealed copy, waiting for the others to decide what happens next.

Kynes places two fingers above the sealed copy and lets psycomatry trace the object’s recent handling. The paper answers with layered impressions of ink, wax, and careful concealment.

The seal itself is genuine, but the copy was tampered with before it was sealed. One page was removed, then replaced by a nearly identical sheet bearing altered wording.

A sharp pressure blooms behind Kynes’s eyes, followed by a thin nosebleed. The effort leaves his fingers trembling, but the impressions remain clear enough to identify the substituted page.

The false page concerns the living recipient and changes the meeting’s timing by one day. Nhal keeps the copy flat on the desk while Slaan reaches for clean cloth.

Kynes lays his fingers over the sealed copy and follows the paper’s handling backward, past wax, ink, and concealment, seeking the hand that changed it.

The impression resolves into Odran Pell at this desk three nights ago. He lifts the original page, replaces it with the altered sheet, and seals the copy himself.

The effort drives blood from Kynes’s nose and briefly blurs the office around him. The name remains certain, while the exact wording of the removed page slips beyond recall.

Bren reaches the office doorway with clean cloth in hand, while below, Odran’s muffled voice carries from the cellar. The evidence remains intact on the desk.

Kynes wipes the blood from beneath his nose with Slaan’s cloth. He draws the Soul-Cutter, its dark edge catching the office lantern without any flare of magic.

Bren steps aside as Kynes leads the way down. Nhal gathers the altered copy and follows, while Slaan remains by the desk to guard the ledgers and evidence.

Odran looks up as Kynes enters the cellar with the Soul-Cutter bare. His face tightens, and the unfinished report slips from his hands onto the chest.

Bren and Slaan climb the stair to the hearth room. Nhal remains with Kynes and Odran, while the cellar door stays open to carry every word.

Upstairs, Bren shifts the cold grate aside and lifts the loose hearthstone. Beneath it, wrapped in oilcloth, lies a folded page sealed with dark wax.

Kynes takes the oilcloth-wrapped page from Slaan and breaks the dark wax carefully. The original unfolds beneath the cellar lantern, dry and legible.

The page names Maelin’s intended recipient: the Crypt’s Benefactor, addressed through a contact called Veyra Ashhand. The handoff was scheduled for tonight, not tomorrow.

A second paragraph states that Veyra carries proof of succession from Ilyr’s custody chain and expects the living witness to confirm the sealed record before dawn.