#Chapter 128: Midnight Encounter

The archives held the kind of quiet that makes your skin prickle. Shelves rose in long aisles, with dark wood and old bindings, and the smell of burned paper still clung to the air from the maps we had saved. I kept my lantern low, walking with careful steps that swallowed the sound of my boots. Nathan had stationed a guard at the main door, but I came in through the catalogue room so I could move without explanation. I wanted to see what had been disturbed, not hear about it secondhand. The house itself seemed to lean in around me, each creak of the wood and sigh of the stone reminding me that secrets here did not like to stay buried. The map drawers along the back wall had been left slightly open. I set the lantern down and pulled one free. The index cards inside were sorted by hand, edges soft from years of use. Another drawer held inventories with a red ribbon tied across a section. The knot felt rough with ash, like someone had fumbled to close it in a hurry. A third drawer