The Rogue Tower

Story So Far

In the Ashveil Public Library's Histories and Cartography wing, a person serving a forty-day community service sentence is on day eleven, shelving books from a rolling ladder beside a returns cart. Among the tagged returns they find a plain dark leather book with no title, author, or shelf slip that nobody checked in. Oswin, a library staff member working nearby on shelf slips, confirms the slip tags are accurate and walks to the far end of the wing, leaving the person close enough to touch the unmarked volume.

The person picks up the plain dark book and finds no stamp, maker's mark, or initials inside. The pages are blank until the final third, where dense dark brown handwriting in shifting unfamiliar script is unreadable in the window light; the book feels cold and leaves a dull ache behind the left eye. The person brings the book to Oswin, who examines the spine and covers, notes the dense handwriting in the back, and says it did not come through the desk. Oswin says he will take it to Head Librarian Maren, who handles materials that cannot be identified.

Before leaving, the person asks Oswin about the unfamiliar script. Oswin opens the book in window light, says he does not recognize the script, notes no printer's mark or acquisition seal, observes the leather is old but the ink looks fresh, and says Maren must see it that night, not the next day. Oswin tucks the book under his arm, jaw tight, and pushes through the door.

Oswin leads the person down the narrow corridor to Maren's office. Maren examines the book under her full-wick oil lamp, opens it near the final third, and asks where it came from, pressing her hand beside the pages until her knuckles go pale. The person explains the book was on the returns cart left near the front desk snack drawer. Maren says no matching book was ever checked out and the volume was never in the collection, the lamp flickers, and she says someone placed it for a new staff member, then asks whether the person read the script in the back.

Discussion follows about whether the book came from the Pomeroy Library branch. Maren exhales with brief amusement, turns the book over, sets it down, removes her spectacles, and says the library explanation is simpler. She tells Oswin to send a note to the Pomeroy branch that night asking about a missing untagged older volume, and states the book stays in her office. Maren then tells the person to go back to shelving; Oswin says he will draft the note to Pomeroy that night. The person returns to the Histories and Cartography wing, empties the returns cart shelving the remaining books, and the plain dark book is locked in Maren's office.

That evening, with shelving finished and the trolley empty, the corridor sconce out, and Maren and Oswin still talking behind her office door, the person slips into the dark corridor and picks the heavy oak lock by touch. Inside Maren's dark office the oil lamp and book are gone and the desk is empty except for an oil ring and dark residue. The person picks the locked bottom drawer and finds a folded sheet, a plain-ring iron key, and a dry pressed flower. The folded sheet contains eight dated entries, the last reading "Ashveil. Returned."

The person realizes Ashveil was returned three days before their sentence started, the same timing as the plain dark book's appearance in the returns bin. They replace the folded paper and iron key in the drawer, leave the crumbled flower, restore the desk to exact order, and slip out through the corridor and main hall to the front door, locking it behind them.

Outside on a cool night, the person walks east to the Tallow Lantern, a pub they have frequented since before the sentence. Petra, the bartender, jeers about shelving books and pours ale. Sitting at the near end of the bar, the person asks Petra whether she reads; Petra says her mother taught her letters and she can read a ledger. When told about an old book with no title or author and unreadable writing in the back third, Petra asks whether the problem was bad light or an unknown language, and the person confirms it was the second.

Petra then points out Mira, a young new hire taken on three days earlier who came in off the docks claiming tavern experience and agreed to work for half wages until she proved herself. The timing of Mira's arrival matches the last entry on the list from Maren's drawer. Mira meets the person's gaze briefly from the far end of the bar before going quietly on with collecting cups and disappearing into the back.

Mira comes back out with her hands free and moves to the near end of the bar. The person calls to her and asks what she reads; Mira stops short, says she reads whatever is available in libraries, picks up two empty cups, and then says, "You work at the Ashveil branch." Mira stands at the bar with the two empty cups against her hip and her gaze on the person, while Petra watches from the far end.