Salt on a Dead Man's Tongue
Inez Ward opens her door to a collapsing courier dead on her threshold, Elias’s stolen sigil in his grip. A call from the Curator imposes a five-night deadline tied to the Ninth Salt Circle auction for the ritual ledger. Inez burns the sigil in a makeshift salt circle at personal cost to break its tracker, then discovers the first ledger scrap confirming Elias is alive but imprisoned. Pressure, knowledge, and danger all escalate sharply.