Sect Year 7 · ninth month · day 25 · Azure Stream Sect, record room
Su had laid the Reaches’ pages out in order along the table, as she laid out the Council’s entries before a sitting. The oldest at the left, the newest at the right, every sheet squared to the edge. The record room held six years of her hand. The boxes along both walls were labelled by year in her square script, and the earliest of them had gone soft at the corners from being opened so often. Lin sat across from her under the window. The lamp stood between them, and the shutters were open on the dark court. The air that came in was cool and smelled of cut straw and wet stone.
He signed the receipt first. It was Su’s copy of the courier’s slate, with the Court’s grey stamp in one corner and the closed wheel above it, every spoke whole. He set his left hand flat on the paper to hold it still. It lay there cold and quiet and did not need holding, though he kept it flat anyway. He signed with his right hand, slowly, his name in the square letters he had learned in the Outer Court and had never quite outgrown.
