Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

He had an obsessive mind.

When there was something that he wanted to research, it took a great deal to divert his attention from satisfying that curiosity.

For years, during his childhood, his mother had attempted to rouse him from his books by implementing several different tactics, eager to get him motivated to go outside and play with other children. To mingle. To make friends. But to no avail. She could never get him to part with his texts.

Yet something—something silently disquiet—was enough to quickly shake his attention from his books. 

Beck raised his chin from the tome and squinted into the hazy room. Several lanterns rebounded off the walls, illuminating the room but creating deep, fathomless shadows behind stacks of books and corners.

Silence.

The tailors had left for the night, leaving early to help with the cleanup effort around the capital. Though it was difficult to remember, as he’d been so engrossed wi