Page 93 of Legacy Ascended

"And?"

He puts a single sheet beside the summary. "This came out of an Ardent office. It describes Luftemilen's movements as preparation for a seizure of power."

"Okay."

"Look at the date."

I do. Then I look at Freya. "Where's the incident on your timeline?"

Freya checks. Jon checks the date on his sheet again.

"This is seven weeks earlier," he says.

"Before the thing that's supposed to have made everyone think Luftemilen was planning something."

"Seven weeks before."

Soren gave me his House's record over breakfast this morning. The evidence against Luftemilen reached House Soren through an Ardent office. On top of it was a page in his own handwriting, saying where it came from and what it doesn't prove.

"People decide things early and turn out to be right," I say.

"They do."

"Or they decide first and then everything they find looks like proof."

"That too."

"And we don't know which this is."

"No."

We keep reading. At about half past four, I finally ask the obvious question.

"How do you know what's supposed to be in here?"

The custodian looks up from her desk. "The inventory."

"Whose inventory?"

"The one made when the material was received. Every case number in this collection traces back to it."

"Can I see it?"

"You've been looking at parts of it all day. The lists at the front of the trays come from it."

"I mean the original."

She takes off her glasses. "Yes. But I turn the pages."

"Fine."

It takes her twenty minutes. What she brings back isn't just the inventory. There are several loose sheets filed with it from the receiving office.

She takes us through the inventory first. It's long, orderly, and mostly exactly what we've already been looking at. Then she turns to the loose sheets.

Freya stops her on the second one. "Wait."

The custodian leaves the page where it is. There are four lines on it, written quickly by whoever received the Luftemilen material.