"What is this, a love letter?" Leon flipped the envelope over, examining the contents. Besides cryptic poetry and clumsy phrasing, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly significant.

“We initially thought it was a love letter from the Queen to this ‘Shadow’ figure, that perhaps Canter was unknowingly cuckolded by his own wife,” Nacho said. “But what’s strange is that we scoured the entire Empire and questioned every information minister. We even used memory-scrying magic, yet no one knew anything about a ‘Shadow.’”

“It’s like he appeared out of thin air.”

Leon pocketed the mysterious letter. “But there’s no way …