Every crease held its ground.
A Shadow Across the Page
“Could you move your sword?” Haru asked.
Sayo looked towards the doorway. No one was trying to enter the archive room.
“Am I blocking the way?”
“The light.”
Sayo lifted her paper sword. Sunlight reached the page beneath its shadow.
Haru leaned over the book. He needed a name for the catalogue, but a binding thread covered part of it.
“May I loosen this?” he asked.
Sayo looked at the thread. She had been asked to keep the page in the room and make sure it remained undamaged.
“What would happen to the page?”
“I could cut the thread, read the name, and tie it again.”
“But would the other pages stay in place?”
Haru examined the binding. “I can’t be certain until I try.”
Sayo rested the tip of her sword beside the table. “Then let’s not try yet.”
The Thread
Haru set down his pencil. “I don’t need to take the page. I only need the name.”
“Is there another copy?”
“I haven’t found one.”
They studied the line together. The thread covered the middle of the name; the first and last letters remained visible.
“Could it be Nami?” Sayo asked.
“Perhaps. But it could be Nori. I shouldn’t put either in the catalogue until I know.”
He moved his head to one side. Sayo held the window covering back so more light fell across the page, but the thread stayed where it was.
“I can see the ink beside it,” Haru said. “Not underneath.”
He took a clean slip of paper and wrote the visible letters with a space between them. Then he added the page number.
“There’s a list at the front,” Sayo said. “Would that help?”
“I looked for a separate copy. I didn’t think to check inside the book.”
Another Record
Sayo held the book steady while Haru turned back to the beginning. The pages rustled beneath his fingers.
Haru ran his pencil down the list until he found the page number.
“Nori,” he read.
“Is there another entry with that number?” Sayo asked.
They checked the lines above and below. There was only one. Haru turned back to the page and compared its first and last letters with the name in the list.
“That fits,” he said. “And the page number matches.”
He wrote the name in his catalogue. Beside it, he noted where he had found it: the list at the front of the book, and the page whose middle letters were covered.
“Will anyone need to check both?” Sayo asked.
“They can, if they want to know why I chose that name.”
Sayo looked at the thread again. It still lay across the writing, just as it had when Haru arrived.
A Clearer Place for the Light
Haru closed his catalogue and gathered his pencil and slips. Sayo kept her hand beside the open book while he finished.
“Thank you for holding the light,” he said.
“I only held the window covering.”
“It helped.”
“And thank you for leaving the thread.”
Haru smiled. “It seems to be doing its job.”
They closed the book together and returned it to its place on the table. Sayo moved her sword to the other side, away from the window.
“Expecting another reader?” Haru asked.
“Possibly. I’d rather not cover the first letter next time.”
Haru reached the doorway, then looked back. The sword’s shadow now fell across an empty corner of the floor.
“That looks like a good place for it.”
Sayo glanced down. “It can guard the corner too.”
Livora Gracely ♥
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