The taste of poison lingered on my lips as I woke from the seventeenth death.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Lunar belladonna residue—3.2% concentration. First assassin's blade.*
I pressed a finger to my mouth, letting my saliva pool. A single drop hissed as it hit the glorious tower floor, eating through stone.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Adjust pH to 8.4. Add neutralizing enzymes.*
Tonight, I wouldn't dodge the knife.
Tonight, I would *catch* it.
---
**Alley of Silent Deaths – 11:43 PM**
The blade came right on schedule—left-handed, 23-degree angle, aimed for the jugular.
This time, I turned *into* the strike.
Cold steel bit into my lips as I caught the dagger between my teeth. The assassin's eyes—a startling violet behind her mask—widened as I *licked* the poisoned edge.
**[Kael]** "Hello, Nightshade."
Her real name was Elara Voss. Former head librarian of the Fourth floor of Spade tower. Disappeared three winters ago after uncovering something she shouldn't have.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Recruited? No—blackmailed. Pupils dilated at 0.3% asymmetry—addiction tremor in blade hand.*
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I spat the now-neutralized poison at her feet.
**[Kael]** "The Archivist's keeping you on a tight leash, isn't he?"
Her dagger wavered.
---
**The Poisoned Librarian's Tale**
Elara's safehouse smelled of mildew and desperation.
**[Elara]** "He's not just an archivist." Her fingers trembled around the antidote vial I'd concocted from my own enzymes. "He's the *Keeper of Forbidden Records*—position created after the Purge of '73."
I watched her throat work as she swallowed.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Truth serum components activating. 5...4...3...*
**[Elara]** "He's waited *decades* for an advisor position." Her words spilled out in a rush. "Studies every move the Count makes. Notices *patterns*—like how certain people always survive statistically impossible scenarios."
Her hand flew to her mouth too late.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Ah. So that's his game.*
---
**The Keeper's True Nature**
The records painted a chilling picture:
A man who'd spent thirty years in the Tower's bowels, quietly documenting every anomaly. Who noticed when certain guards always survived massacres. When certain nobles repeatedly escaped assassinations.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *He doesn't know about loops... but he knows* something's *wrong.*
Elara's nails bit into my arm.
**[Elara]** "He calls you *'The Statistical Ghost'*. Thinks you're some kind of temporal anomaly." A hysterical laugh escaped her. "Gods help us, he might be right."
I pressed a finger to her lips—now coated in my customized antidote.
**[Kael]** "How does he control the Quiet Ones?"
Her pupils dilated further.
**[Elara]** "The *ink*... he poisons the official seals..."
---
**The Kiss of Truth**
Dawn found us tangled in her moth-eaten sheets, my saliva counteracting the Archives' poison in her bloodstream.
**[Elara]** "He'll kill me for this." Her breath hitched as I traced the barcode-like scars along her ribs—tally marks for every "corrected" anomaly.
**[Kael]** "Only if he finds you." I pressed my lips to the freshest scar. "And I'm rather good at making people *disappear*."
My tongue deposited a slow-acting counteragent into her bloodstream.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Neuroprotective enzymes. Will neutralize Archives' conditioning in 72 hours.*
She stiffened as the taste registered.
**[Elara]** "You're *worse* than him."
I smiled against her skin.
**[Kael]** "But you'll help me anyway."
Because the scars told another story—not just punishment, but *research*. The Keeper had been testing various theories long before I entered the game.
---
**Glorious tower – New Dawn**
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *The Keeper's real goal: not advisor, but* replacement. *He wants the Count's temporal research.*
The pocket watch ticked ominously on the nightstand.
Outside, a single sheet of archival paper fluttered down from the Tower—covered in numbers that shouldn't exist.
My survival statistics across 173 recorded encounters.
**[Kael, Internal Monologue]** *Time to ghost my own records.*
---