Location:Obsidian Academy — Qin's private study
Date/Time:9 Frostforge, 9942 AZI
Realm:Lower Realm, Doha
The ward closed behind her in seven layers, one after another, and the last one sealed with a sound like a held breath letting go.
Old copper in the air. Under it the flat ozone smell of formations stacked too close together, the smell of a room built by somebody who did not trust doors. No windows. Shelves of sealed scrolls going up past the reach of the light. One formation lamp on the desk throwing steady amber over a surface that had not been clear of paper in four hundred years, or however long it had actually been. She had stopped guessing about Qin some time ago.
Two chairs.
Both occupied.
Heizan sat cross-legged in the second one with his bare feet tucked under him, iron-gray hair tied back with a strip of cloth that had been a bandage in some earlier life. What was left of his left hand rested on his knee. The casual mask sat on him the way other men wear armor.
