Kael's POV
The message arrived on a Tuesday, which was not a day I would associate with being surprised.
Reiss brought it in a Manila envelope and set it on the desk without comment, stood at a neutral distance, and waited to see what I did with it.
The envelope was plain. No guild seal, no formal header. My name on the front in handwriting I didn't recognize.
I simply looked at Reiss. Waiting to understood the meaning of what was about to take place.
"It came through the ramen shop," he said. "Left with the owner by someone she described as well-dressed and very polite."
That came as a shock. Dropping a message through Akira's mother…
A message for me… I looked at the envelope again. The ramen shop. I picked it up and opened it.
The note inside was brief. One paragraph, no signature, the handwriting the same clean unhurried script as the envelope.
