~LYRA'S POV~
Lord Harlan's body was discovered in his chambers the morning I was allowed to return to work.
It came to me secondhand, through a corridor, from someone who hadn't been talking to me but was talking near me, which is how most things in a packhouse are heard.
The specific hush that swept through the building indicated that something serious had occurred and that people had not yet decided what to do with the information.
With a book in my hand, I waited for the next piece in the east corridor. They pointed to natural causes first. The healer's initial assessment seemed to support the hypothesis that Lord Harlan's heart had simply given out during the night because he was not a young man.
It was regrettable. Sad was it. It was typical of what took place.
The vial was then found by a servant while cleaning my room. Small. Glass. tucked away against the back wall where the table leg meets the floor, beneath my vanity table.
