Noxia Shade's Arc

Chapter 7 of 15

The dark passage bent again and opened on a small wooden chapel tucked into the stone, its pointed windows lit from inside. A courier knelt at a low shrine by the door, sorting sealed papers into a root-woven crate. Noxia saw the wax stamps. Lock orders. Every door past this point would seal the moment he finished his round. She pulled off one boot in the shadow of the arch. The cold air picked up the scent and carried it ahead of her, slow and patient. The courier paused over the crate. He pressed a hand to his throat. His shoulders sagged, then his knees. He went down beside the shrine without a sound. Noxia crossed the floor and crouched by the crate. The sealed orders sat in neat rows, still warm from his hands. She lifted the stack, broke the seals one by one, and fed each page to the candle at the shrine. The wax ran. The names burned. She left three blank seals on top of the crate so the next handler would find an empty answer. She tugged her boot back on and stepped past the courier. The doors ahead stayed open. The spymaster's last rooms waited, unlocked, and someone inside them would soon learn the orders had never arrived.