Noxia Shade's Arc

Chapter 15 of 15

Noxia climbed the mountain path in one boot and one bare foot. The dojo sat at the top, lanterns lit, doors open. A golden torch burned on the threshold — not hers. The woman in the fur coat had already passed inside. Noxia wiped blood from her sole on the stone and stepped through. Inside, the spymaster sat behind a low table. The woman in the fur coat stood at his shoulder, calm as snow. On the table she had placed a glass jar. Inside it, a bright-patterned spider clicked against the lid. "Her tracker," the woman said. "Found in my coat lining. Set on me by your new recruit." She slid a folded paper forward. A forged route. A forged name. A Noxia who spied for the rival network. Noxia did not argue. She unlaced her remaining boot and set it on the table beside the jar. The spymaster's brow lifted. "Open the jar," Noxia said. The woman hesitated. Noxia reached across and twisted the lid herself. The spider scrambled free, ran three steps, and crumpled near the boot. Dead before it reached the wood. "My scent kills what tracks me," Noxia said. "If I had placed it, it would not have lived in her pocket a day." The spymaster studied the dead spider, then the woman, then Noxia's bare feet. He tipped the torch from its stand. The flame caught the forged paper and ate it. "Eighth gate holds," he said. The woman in the fur coat bowed and walked out past the smoking ash. Noxia pulled her boot back on. She had her place at the table now — but the woman had walked away breathing, and a debt to a keeper still sat in her other hand.