Sect Year 1 · ninth month · night of day 29 · Azure Stream Sect, Inner Court, north ridge
The runner came up the ridge path late in the afternoon. He was a boy from the Outer Court with lime dust to his elbows and a letter buttoned inside his coat, and he would give it to no one but the person named on the cover. The name was Lin Cang’s. Su signed for it in her own hand, because Lin was not there to sign.
“Senior Sister,” the boy said, “the Deacon sends his regards.”
“Did he say so?”
“No. I thought that was what they’d say.” He looked at the step as though it might be the wrong step. “He said to bring it up before the bell.”
Su took the letter inside. She read it once with the shutter half closed against the last of the light, then again, slowly, because she read everything twice before she trusted it. The paper was cheap. The ink was not. The Deacon had used his own, and it had a faint green cast in the strokes.
The letter was short.
To the student’s residence on the north ridge, by the Outer Court’s hand.
