There's a box left at the Captain's doorstep. Inside is a bed of pink blossoms, and the bow to a violin. But if Irelia were to reach into the box, she may find that there are razors scattered beneath the petals and pointed up. The note: 'Find the music. Listen.'
“A gift for you, Captain,” calls one of the guards.
Irelia rounds the corner of the open corridor, a warm breeze blowing between the pillars. Business in the Placidium was plentiful even in the early morning hours, and a handful of guards salute to her as she walks. “Oh?” Her gaze settles on the rectangular box, and her eyes narrow. “Has the Order of the Lotus sent their donation early today?”
The woman, scarcely into her adult years, gingerly takes a step back, as if the box was some kind of explosive - and Irelia doesn’t know enough to say otherwise. Irelia calls for someone to fetch a long piece of cloth, and to wrap up the box so they can safely examine it.
Another guardswoman dons a pair of gloves and opens the lid. Since the Brotherhood had accelerated their activities, Irelia had learned to look her gift horses in the mouth, and to not let even seemingly harmless acts of charity go unchecked. She sees the petals, arranged around the thin wood of a violin bow with a dedicated florist’s care.
“Stand back,” Irelia orders the guards. “Put the box on a table.” As the guards give her space, Irelia calls for one of her blades, holding it in the air over the box before swinging her hand down and sending the edge straight through the box. Irelia hears the clashing of steel against the serrations of other metal, and her face displays a grim frown.
“I thought so.” She walks towards the box, seeing the hole her blade made covered around the edge by sharp, minuscule razors.
And in the corner of the box, a note written in calligraphy. “Find the music. Listen.”
Irelia mutters a curse to herself, before ordering the box sent away. “Close one.”
“Who would’ve sent something like that to us, Captain?” Mitsuri asks.
Her teeth scrape against her tongue. “An artist who is too insistent on displaying his work to me.”