Chapter 29 - The Weight of a Name
The summons arrived before dusk.
Jun Kai was in the middle of a routine report when the seal caught his eye...yellow clay impressed with a familiar sigil, sharp-edged and unmistakable.
The Xiao crest.
It sat at the corner of the document stack like something placed there deliberately to be seen. Not urgent in appearance. Not aggressive.
Just present.
His pen paused mid-stroke.
The patrol office was still active around him...scribes murmuring over logistics, the faint scratch of brushes against paper, the muted clink of armor as guards shifted posts. Outside the open lattice windows, the late afternoon light had begun to soften into amber.
He dismissed the guard who had delivered it without comment.
The man bowed and left immediately, unaware that the small folded message had shifted the air inside the room.
Jun Kai waited until the door slid shut.
Then he broke the seal alone.
