She hadn't seen Eryx since the first night they were back. Ismene hadn't sought Eryx out in the dorms before, and now she wished she had. If it wasn't contraband books, then what? Had Harmonia decided to oust Eryx? Take credit for her doings? No; that wouldn't require destroying anything.

  "What happened?" Ismene asked. She immediately regretted her impulse. Melite just looked at her, until she took a step back. "Okay, all right, I get it," she said. And so, Ismene returned to pulling out Eryx's work and burning all her hopes for change.

  After a few trips, hoping that the disaster had become more like a routine, Ismene opened the scraps cabinet. It was always a chaos, full of paper trimmings, fragments useful for test prints, and notepaper-to-be. It wasn't exactly in Melite's line of sight, and she started pulling items from it as if nothing had changed. Then, she took a few of the scraps and set them down next to the shrinking pile of notes.

  On her next trip, hoping against her bad luck that she'd be unnoticed, Ismene took some of the notes from Melite's pile and scanned them. She picked up some of the scraps, and spent a moment pretending to read them, too. Then she turned back to the shelf.

  "What is it?" Melite said, turning his full attention on her.

  "Sorry, wasn't sure about some scraps," Ismene said, separating the two as if she'd never intended to have them both in hand. "Wanted to compare them."

  "If you're not sure, put them all here." Melite gestured to the fire. "Actually, that's scraps?"

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Ismene nodded, cursing internally. Melite hadn't been here long enough to know; she might've gotten away with switching some if she'd been quicker.

  "May as well burn it all."

  Reluctantly, Ismene consigned the whole cabinet to the fire.

  She sorted and stacked and burned until Melite was satisfied; by then, lunchtime had come and gone. From the binding room, Ismene caught the occasional glance from the binders on duty. They knew something was up. She wondered what they thought.

  Ismene considered her options. Maybe she'd still be able to find out what had happened to Eryx back at the villa?

  Melite sighed again, and Ismene was drawn back to the present. "All right. Give me those back," he demanded, pointing at the keys. "Go home," he said.

  "Sir?" Ismene asked. "My shift isn't done until sixth—"

  "I said go home," Melite said. "Not that way," he said, as Ismene started to walk up to the print hall. "Out back. And don't start any gossip." That was a bit silly; he'd made enough of a scene already. The rest of the workers might not know what was happening yet, but they certainly knew something was.

  "I still need to sign out," Ismene protested. Would she have no chance to tell anyone?

  "I will do it," Melite rounded on her. "Don't take this attitude with me. You may not be part of this House anymore, but I can still have you disciplined."

  Ismene started to retreat, but the jab stung her further. "My tokens? I did work," she asked. It was purely to irritate him... mostly.

  Melite glared. "Don't move from this spot." He walked up front and came back with a day chit. "Here," he said, signing it. "Get out of here."

  Ismene duly retreated out the back. She had to find Eryx.