I waited three days before the second message came.
It was tucked between two pressed lotus leaves inside a small herbal packet from the palace apothecary. I wasn't meant to receive it. I wasn't even on duty. The physician claimed it was misdelivered.
But my name was written clearly on the paper wrap.
In his hand.
This time, no words.
Just a drawing.
A tiny, inked symbol of an old alchemical mark one I'd seen only once, years ago.
Etched on the brass gate of Room 7C.
The chamber where the experiments were held.
But this one was slightly altered.
A slash across the circle.
A broken pact.
He knows.
Not just about the poisoning.
Not just about Jun Niang and the Empress's hidden circle.
He knows what happened to me in that chamber.
Who I was, before they tried to erase me.
What I knew.
Why I was dangerous enough to be forgotten.
I traced the ink with the edge of my fingernail.
Why would a prince so distant, so supposedly dulled by sedatives send this?
Why point me toward the truth?
Unless…
He doesn't want to expose me.
He wants to use me.
Or worse he already has.
That night, I placed the paper under my pillow, face up.
A silent message of my own:
I see you too.