Chapter 31 · The Chief Namer's Mistake

The thing behind the core door struck again.

The archive floor buckled beneath Noa’s knees. Shelves groaned. Thousands of contract tablets rattled in their brackets, their ink crawling like black insects across the glass. Somewhere beyond the sealed bronze, something vast dragged a nail—or a thought—down the other side.

Evelyn caught Noa by the waist before she hit the floor.

“Stay with me.”

Noa’s breath came thin and sharp. She clutched Evelyn’s coat, fingers sinking into the damp wool. The memory of fire still burned behind her eyes: a six-year-old girl coughing in the ash, a younger Noa lifting her through a window, Aveline’s pale hand pressing two fingers to a child’s brow. Then the blankness. The command. Evelyn’s signature.

Her own name had been killed with a penstroke.

“Don’t say that,” Noa whispered.

Evelyn tightened her grip. “Say what?”

“Stay with me.” Noa looked up at her. Evelyn’s face was bloodless, her pupils blown wide by the memories she had recovered. “You said it before.”

“I don’t remember.”

“No. You remember too much now.”

A wet, amused sound came from the far end of the archive.

Silas Morn stood beneath the broken archway, one hand braced against the wall.