He reached into the folds of his robes and retrieved a small object from his ring—a paper scroll, no larger than a palm-width.
With a flick of his wrist, he slid it toward Timur.
"This," he said, "is what we've received from the Vampire Hunters."
Timur caught it in one hand, his brow furrowing as he unraveled it. His eyes scanned the writing. Slowly, his lips pulled into a thin line.
His silence was telling.
Then he passed the scroll to Ludwig.
Ludwig read.
The letters were scrawled in a strange hand—fast, urgent. The ink stained, like the writer had gripped the quill too tightly. Names. Locations. Descriptions of events. Strange disappearances. Bloodless corpses. Whispers of howls in the fog. Entire supply lines going silent.
Not once, not twice, dozens. And the location? The Dawn Islands, again and again.
Ludwig frowned.
"…This is ironic," he murmured.
The Baron looked at him sharply. "You mean you recognized something in the letter?"
