Chapter 373: The Remaining Source

The craftsperson unwrapped the guard on its bench and turned it toward the light.

Ren had brought it to the cove workshop in the cloth from the post desk. The groove ran from near the elbow toward the wrist. The craftsperson passed a thumbnail across it, stopped where it caught, and tilted the glass to examine the depth. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"Tell me how it hit."

"Across the curve. It slid toward my wrist. I had Titanhide active, but the force still went through my arm. My fingers went numb."

"For how long?"

"Through the next part of the fight. The feeling came back afterward."

It turned the guard over and pressed the backing, then checked each strap fitting. Ren watched it work around the rim before returning to the groove.

"The backing and fittings look sound. I need a closer look at the glass."

"Can you dress it?"

"I can take the rough edge down. Whether I can leave enough sound glass is another question." It set the piece on the bench, scored side up. "Leave it here. I’ll test it after the work."

"All right."

Ren reached for the empty cloth, then left it beside the guard.

"The spear?"

"Still fitting the second head. Neither one’s ready to throw."

He left both jobs with the craftsperson. Once he had returned to Dawnspire, he went to Dole’s office, his forearm unguarded beneath his coat.

— • —

Yueying was already there. Her notes lay beside a new copy of the docket and a signed sheet from the registry.

"I saw the file this morning," she said. "They found it under the new number."

She showed Dole the transfer cross-reference. Ren recognized the old number from her notes; beside it, a second number identified the file at the new office.

"The carrier and receiving references match too," Yueying said. "The renumbering accounts for that change. But they brought me only the docket."

She put her finger beneath its attachment field. The reference to the handling instruction was still there.

"The instruction wasn’t with it?"

"No. I asked for the page counts. The dispatch inventory lists two, but the current entry says one. The clerk couldn’t find a separate count made when the file arrived."

Dole drew the signed sheet closer.

"Any correction entered against either count?"

"None that he could show me."

Ren looked between the two numbers. The old inventory recorded a two-page file being sent; the new office held one. Without an intake check, neither count told them when the attachment had gone missing.

"Could it have been filed separately?" he asked.

"The clerk checked that reference in the separate-attachment series. Then he checked the neighboring files in case it had been put back in the wrong one. He didn’t find it."

Yueying slid the signed sheet across to Dole. It identified the file, recorded when Yueying had inspected it and confirmed that only the docket had been produced. The clerk had listed the places he had checked for the attachment.

"I asked him to record those searches too," she said. "Whoever checks next won’t have to start with the same shelves."

Dole read to the signature, then opened the folder containing Yueying’s earlier authenticated extract. Its second page carried the handling instruction.

Ren could see the clerk’s certification beneath it. The copy had been made before the transfer, when the instruction was still available for comparison. Whatever had happened to the source, the words they had taken to Dole remained on her table.

— • —

Dole placed the two-page extract beside the new docket copy.

"I’ve already requested the carrier’s return packets in this collection that refer to handling instructions, including their attachments."

"To look for other receiving points?" Ren asked.

"Yes. We can check the destinations and see what procedures they used."

She took the registry’s response from the folder and found the entry for this docket. It gave the new number, a one-page count and a mark showing the packet as complete.

Yueying leaned forward.

"They counted the page they had."

"And reported that as everything," Dole said. "Even though the docket names an attachment."

Ren read the entry. Had Yueying not kept the extract, a one-page return could have passed through the search without anyone seeing what was missing.

"Can they still search the instruction’s reference?"

"Yes. I’ll have them continue that search. But I also need the packets checked against the attachment references written on them. A count copied from the current index won’t do."

She drew a line beneath the docket’s entry in the registry response.

"If they’ve treated other packets like this one, some of the material I requested hasn’t been produced. We need to find out which sheets are missing and where else they might have been filed."

"The whole transferred collection?" Yueying asked.

"The carrier’s packets covered by my request, and any separately filed attachments they cite. We’ll widen it if the check gives us a reason."

Dole began a preservation request. She included the current packets, the separate attachments and the dispatch and intake records. Beneath those she asked for any recorded changes to the page count and the available file-access history.

Ren watched her copy the two file numbers. She kept the old and new references together wherever the request named the docket.

"Will that tell you who handled it?"

"It should give us people to ask. We’ll see what their records actually cover."

She added the signed account of Yueying’s inspection to the request, then took out the original archive clerk’s contact details.

"I’ll ask him about the file he examined for you. How the instruction was attached, how it was referenced, and whether related sheets were kept elsewhere."

"He brought both pages out together," Yueying said. "I watched him compare the extract with them."

"Include that in your account."

Yueying opened her notes again and found the entry for that visit. Dole gave her a sheet to write on while she drafted the message to the clerk.

The authenticated extract stayed open between them.

— • —

"What have you found in the Saltmarch papers?" Ren asked.

Dole set down her pen and opened the second folder.

"There’s an incident entry for a meal spilled at the hatch. It records a cart being held and the remaining load carried through by hand. That supports what Mei told me about the interruption before the handling changed."

Ren remembered the instruction on Yueying’s extract: carts stopping outside, loads carried onward in batches, meals after the passage door closed. The seized entry gave investigators an event to compare with that change.

"Was there anything about the guards?"

"A meal-duty sheet lists two names for the hatch. One matches the detained door guard’s confirmed identity. We’re trying to locate the other person."

"Was he the second guard?"

"He was assigned to the duty. We still need to establish which handoffs he worked."

Dole noted the question beside the sheet. Ren had seen one guard outside Mei’s room during the carrying, not a meal. He had nothing to add about who stood there when the tray came.

"And the man from the landing?"

"He hasn’t spoken. Custody is still working on his identity."

She closed the Saltmarch folder and returned to the registry request.

"Does the missing attachment hold up checks at the other receiving points?" Ren asked.

"Any reference we have can still be followed. This holds up the comparison of their instructions. Until the registry checks the packets properly, I can’t treat its response as a complete return."

"If that search needs me, I’ll go."

"I’ll let you know. For now, I need the registry staff to find and check the papers."

Ren nodded. Yueying finished writing and handed Dole her account, then put the pen down beside her notes.

— • —

Dole read Yueying’s account before signing the two requests. She checked the old file reference against the authentication, then the new one against the clerk’s signed inspection sheet.

"The preservation request goes now," she told the officer at the door. "Send the inquiry to the clerk as well."

The officer took both. Dole kept copies in the registry folder, with the record of Yueying’s earlier submission.

Yueying gathered her research notes and the transfer details. She checked the new file reference against her notes before putting them away with her acknowledgment.

Ren stood with her.

Dole had laid the current docket copy beside the authenticated instruction. The reference on one matched the heading on the other. They could still read what the original file had once contained.

At the door, Yueying stopped.

"Send me word if he remembers another filing series."

"I will," Dole said.

She turned back to the carrier’s return list and began marking the packets whose attachments would have to be checked.