4345.97 · April 7, 2025 AD
The Wrong Flower
Two figures step into lantern light. Familiar faces from behind the café counter—but nothing about this night follows familiar rules. Nathan moves before anyone can speak, violence erupting from a man the Campbells thought they knew. A tattoo on skin. A symbol that carries weight in worlds Kelly Bales has never heard of. She came looking for her grandfather's secrets. She's about to discover they've been waiting for her.
Kelly and Rhona weren't supposed to be here.
They'd followed rumours of Jacobite tunnels, chasing fragments from Kelly's grandfather's journals—references to something called the Baengnyeonhoe, the White Lotus Society, and a hidden meeting place beneath Edinburgh. Academic curiosity. Family mystery. Nothing that should end with a colleague slamming her against ancient stone, blade drawn, eyes cold with accusation.
"You're one of them. The White Rose Society."
The tattoo on Kelly's wrist has marked her since university. A family symbol she never fully understood, passed down without explanation. Now it's triggered violence from the barista she's worked alongside for months—a man who clearly isn't just a barista, whose gentle demeanour has shattered into something trained and lethal.
Douglas intervenes. Examines the ink. Shakes his head.
"That's not a white rose. It's a white lotus."
The distinction means nothing to Kelly. But it means everything to the people now staring at her with expressions ranging from suspicion to cautious reassessment. She's stumbled into the middle of a story already in motion, and her grandfather's secrets have just become her own.
Then more footsteps echo through the tunnels.
They're not alone down here.
