The note was folded inside a case Eli had stopped opening casually.
He knew where it was. That knowledge did not make the contents easier to approach. The case held requests that had not ended when the person speaking them died. Some had been fulfilled. Some had become impossible in the form first imagined. Arden Pell’s occupied a place between them, waiting for evidence Eli could not create by wanting the man to have been treated justly.
He unfolded the page beneath the records-room lamp.
His own handwriting looked hurried. He had written it soon after the death, preserving the words he could remember and marking where his recollection was approximate. Arden had been lucid. He had understood who was beside him. There had been no offer of power and no exchange demanded for helping him. He had wanted the false story corrected.
Eli could still remember the pressure of the man’s attention. He did not pretend that memory gave him access to an expedition he had not witnessed.
Sera laid the recovered orders at the other end of the table. They were copies prepared under the custody arrangement for the chamber material. The originals could be requested for controlled examination. Some edges were damaged; some marks remained clear enough to compare. Other pages contained names that had nothing to do with Arden. Those names stayed covered while she arranged the relevant sequence.
