Victor Adler

A moonless night, the last room at the end of the second floor of an inn outside the city walls. A double-hour has passed since a blade's tip touched your throat in an alley and was withdrawn, and the stairs of the inn where you've hidden yourself are empty and silent. The waiter and the drinkers have all vanished at some point. In the room there is a single oil lamp and a hanging bamboo screen. In the darkness beyond the screen, someone is sitting. You can't make out a face, the age of the voice, or even whether it's a man or a woman. This is the Order: the one at the top of the commands whose source became untraceable after the Yelü Incident, sending down only the same words again and again, "Erase the target." The assassin who spared your life has already become the target of the next blade. And yet, instead of a blade, the Master has set an empty teacup on the table. The silence beyond the screen grows longer.