Atsuki Nightwhisper's Arc

Chapter 13 of 17

Atsuki laid the two torn halves on Aelindor's worn root and pressed the edges together. The tears matched. His parents' names ran whole across the seam. But paper alone meant nothing. "Anyone could tear a page and write names," he said. "I need someone with authority to call these real. I know no one who will." Aelindor sat in the groove his own weight had worn into the oak. He studied the seam without touching it. "One place authenticates old records," he said. "The dwarven hall. Their high priest stamps a document true or false. His word settles it." "Will he see me?" "He sees anyone. He believes almost no one." Aelindor said nothing more. He turned back to his page as if Atsuki had already gone. The hall stood carved from solemn stone, its iron doors flanked by rows of etched tablets. Inside, Archon Scriptus waited behind a stone table. He was a dwarf, small and broad, his gray beard braided twice. A red hat rose high above his stern face. He looked at Atsuki the way a moneylender looks at a stranger. "Records," the priest said. He held out a thick hand. Atsuki set the two halves down and joined them. Scriptus bent over the seam. He ran a lens along the tear, checked the seals, weighed each half in his palm. He did not speak for a long time. "Ink and paper agree," he said at last. "Same batch. Same hand. But a torn record is a broken record. Anyone might have torn it to change what it said. I need proof these halves belong together and to no forgery." Atsuki's stomach dropped. He had no witness the priest would trust. Then he remembered the weight at his throat. He drew the whole pendant free and set it beside the papers. "The oath is a marriage bond," Atsuki said. "Two houses. The record names the same two houses as dead. Match the pendant to the names." Scriptus lifted the pendant. He compared the two engraved houses to the two names crossing the seam. His stern brow eased by a fraction. He reached under his robe and drew out a signet ring, gold worked with an old family crest. He pressed its face into hot wax at the foot of the joined page. "Verified," he said. "Both houses. Both deaths. The debt these record is paid in full. I will keep a sealed copy in this hall." He looked up. "My seal cannot be undone by any priest in Eldergrove." Atsuki gripped the sealed proof. His family was no longer marked, and now the record could not be denied. But Scriptus set down his lens with a frown. "You should know. A scarred priest came asking this morning for any records touching your houses. I turned him away." He folded his hands. "He knows you seek what he lost. He will come for you before you can use this."