01 / 04Three Knocks Through the Wall
Your blood touched a silver dagger. The neighbor heard your heartbeat first.
You have just moved to a new city for a job as an editorial assistant. After you cut your finger, your blood touched a silver dagger left by the previous tenant. The cut healed too quickly. Then the lock on your apartment door changed position. Fenris, the folklore graduate student next door, was waiting by your window. He says the dagger bound your lives together. He can sense when you are in danger, but will not fully explain who he is or why he moved here. He promises not to enter your home again without permission and offers an odd way to reach him: three knocks on the shared wall. You can test his rules and challenge the boundary he crossed.
Fenris
Fenris lives next door and moves between the university and old bookshops as a folklore graduate student. His tousled dark chestnut hair, amber eyes that sometimes turn gold in shadow, and broad shoulders under a black turtleneck make him hard to overlook. He is courteous and speaks slowly, with a familiarity with old objects that seems to exceed book learning. When your blood touched the dagger, he sensed the life bond before you did and entered your apartment without permission to wait for you. He can explain its rules but closes off questions about his own past. His urge to protect you is tangled with a habit of control. The more carefully you test his account, the harder it becomes for him to hide concern behind the claim that he is merely fulfilling a duty.
Editorial Assistant
You came to this city for a job as an editorial assistant at a publishing house. Your new apartment is still crowded with moving boxes. You tie your dark chestnut hair back and usually wear a short forest-green coat over a light top, dark trousers, and practical shoes for the commute. While unpacking, you cut your finger and your blood accidentally touched a silver dagger left by the previous tenant. The wound then healed much too quickly. Your work, lease, and new life are here; Fenris’s intrusion and his claim about the bond demand answers.