Inheritance Letter

This heavy sheet of ash-white parchment is folded into a neat square and bound with a cracked wax seal stamped with a black tower over thorned branches. The ink is still sharp and dark despite its age, and the paper is stiff with the faint scent of smoke, iron, and damp stone. When held in moonlight, the hidden fibers along the margins shimmer like silver thread, and the seal gives off a muted pulse as if a second heart beats beneath the wax.