Jade Vesper's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The knock came three days later. Jade set down her teacup and listened. Not the brass knocker her students used. This was knuckles on wood. Direct. Impatient. She opened the door to find a woman in a gray coat holding a leather portfolio. The woman didn't wait for an invitation. She walked past Jade into the entry hall and unrolled a scroll across the dining table. The parchment glowed faintly, covered in dates and signatures that traced backward through centuries. "The manuscript you acquired last week belongs to the Mordain Collection. This shows the chain of ownership from 1647 to present day. My family's claim predates yours by three hundred years." She produced a small statue from her bag and set it on the mantle without asking. A hooded figure carved in stone, holding a staff and book. "Consider this a marker of my authority. I've established an office in town to facilitate the transfer." Jade studied the scroll without touching it. The provenance looked legitimate. Too legitimate. She'd seen forgeries that convinced magistrates, but this woman's confidence suggested something more dangerous—a collector who believed her own story. "You've gone to considerable trouble," Jade said. She walked to her desk and pulled out a single sheet of paper. Her purchase receipt. The seller's name was crossed out, replaced with her polite correction in red ink. "The previous owner surrendered all claims. Enthusiastically." The woman's jaw tightened. Jade kept her voice warm. "But I appreciate thoroughness. Tell me about your office." The shop the woman had rented sat two blocks from the town square. Inside, she'd arranged display cases showing other disputed items, each with documentation mounted beside it. Jade examined the setup with professional interest. This wasn't about one manuscript. This was a collector building a reputation, using Jade's acquisition as proof she could challenge anyone. The woman expected negotiation or legal maneuvering. Instead, Jade smiled. "Keep your office open as long as you need. But the manuscript stays where dangerous things belong—locked away from people who see collection as competition." She left before the woman could respond. The collector had shown Jade exactly what her library needed to become: not just a repository, but a vault with standards high enough that no claim of ownership would matter more than the question of who could properly contain what they held.