AUTHOR’S POV
Hours later, when the compound had fallen into a hush, when even the pups had stopped whispering in the corners and the sentries’ boots no longer echoed off stone, Jovani slipped through the back entrance of the archive chamber. The oldest part of the library.
A place no one visited unless they were searching for the dead.
Dust lay thick across the stone floor, undisturbed. Time had forgotten this wing. Its shelves bowed under the weight of scrolls so brittle they seemed to breathe dust each time a hand came near. The only light came from the small oil lamp he carried, the flame flickering with each step he took.
Jovani moved with quiet precision, like a man who had done this before. Because he had.
And tonight, he came for answers.
He set the lamp on the wide wooden tab
