Noxia Shade's Arc

Chapter 4 of 15

The seam in the wall opened a hand's width and a boot stepped through. Not hers. A man came in slow, palms out, a scrap of dark cloth pinched between two fingers. He set it on the desk beside her flower and her notebook. His eyes found hers. He had come to claim the kill she had been handed. He had come to name himself before she could name him. Noxia did not speak. She crossed the room to the broken figure of moss and stone that stood against the far wall, its hollow chest glowing soft purple. She slipped off her other boot and set it inside the cavity. The glow caught the leather and pushed the scent into the room. The man's knees buckled before his hand reached his belt. He went down beside the desk, breath thin, eyes still open. Noxia knelt and took the fresh cloth from his fingers. She pressed his slack hand against the bloodied paper from her coat, rolling each finger flat. A print. A signature. She set the paper on the desk beside both cloths and both notebooks. The room would read him now, not her. She had not given a name. She had given a body that could still answer questions, and the third gate had no more questions left for her. The far wall split open without sound. A woman walked through in a heavy fur coat, a gold locket swinging at her throat, the letter on it bright as a coin. She did not look at the man on the floor. She looked at the print on the paper, then at Noxia. She lifted the locket and snapped it open. Inside lay a small key. She set the key on the desk beside the print and closed her gloved hand over Noxia's wrist. The third gate was finished. A fourth door waited behind her, and it was already ajar. The woman's grip held firm but not cruel. She drew Noxia past the desk, past the slumped man, toward the open seam. At the threshold she stopped and turned the key once in her gloved palm. She pressed it into Noxia's hand and folded the fingers shut. No word passed between them. The key was warm. The next room was dark. Noxia stepped through with a stranger's blood on her paper and a stranger's key in her fist, and the door eased closed behind her like a held breath let go.