POV: Dual — flashback framing

The entry is near the back of the ledger, written with the same controlled hand but under a heavier press of the pen. Ayla finds it on the second full pass, when the codes and dead-drops have already been logged and the room has gone quiet enough to hear the smaller details.

She reads the lines once to herself. Then she looks up at the three of them.

“She did not only investigate,” Ayla says. “She reported it. She took the pattern to Dorian and to at least two of the senior elders. The ledger records the meetings and the answers she received.”

Caius moves...