"My Lady! My Lady, look!"
Yua practically tripped over the veranda steps, clutching a bundle of freshly washed white silk. She looked terrified, but her eyes were shining with the thrill of our new espionage game.
I set down my teacup. Rin was busy trying to braid Yuki's white hair while the cat-boy grumbled in his half-sleep.
"What is it, Yua?" I asked, keeping my voice low.
"My sister in the central keep laundry just sent this over," Yua whispered, kneeling beside me and pulling a small, crumpled piece of parchment from the center of the silk pile. "She said a high-ranking court lady deliberately dropped it in the Warlord's washing bin. She made sure my sister saw her do it."
I took the parchment. I unfolded it carefully.
There was no signature. Just a single line of elegant, flowing calligraphy.
The Emperor requires a Lotus Vigil tonight. The Ancestral Shrine has no guards, and the salt wards cannot stop human blades.
My blood ran instantly cold.
