Chapter 5: Sera's Mother's Name, Crossed Out

The cup left a ring on the corner of the desk.

Elias noticed it at half past eight the following morning when he set his satchel down and found the ghost of Crane's cup still there, a faint circular stain on the wood where the glaze had been sitting long enough to mark it. He looked at it for a moment. Then he opened his satchel, removed his pen case and maintenance log, set both in their correct positions, and sat down.

The correction slips for the day were in the wire tray. He counted them without picking them up. Seven. Three names on top were familiar by classification type if not by face — the handwriting on the Bureau routing stamp was Wicklow's, which meant they had come through the southern office and would need re-sorting by term before he filed them. He would do that later.