Chapter 13 · free to read
THIRD-YEAR AUDIT, BUREAU OF GRANARIES, FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH. The Ministry of Rites was not on the list, and everyone concerned could see that it was not.
He asked for the audit himself. He asked for it to be widened, and expedited, and he asked in writing, and he sealed it.
He saw it in four breaths. He had been reading ledgers since he was nine and this one had been built for a reader exactly as good as he was.
He did not warn his guardian. He told himself it was because the figure was true. He was seventeen, and he was not entirely lying to himself, and not entirely not.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.