~Kaida Orion POV~
The drop of green hit my brush before the bristles touched parchment, it coiled around the ink like a living vine, thin, oily, patient. My hand froze, Lupus saw it and leaned in fast.
"Shake it off," he whispered.
"If I flick, it scatters," I said. "Temple board takes the stain."
Moon Priest crouched beside the table. "Hold no, let it bind, then drown it."
Easy for him to say, the parchment before me was the emergency registry...the only copy the court could not legally erase, and every mixed household in our pack depended on us to rewrite their names before the archive purge ate them. Behind us the river bells tolled flood warning, and temple attendants ran with sandbags, but I had no time for delicate war.
