The Warden's Ledger

A small oilskin ledger kept by successive Lower Wardens — a dry record of mortar dates, ration logs, and increasingly clipped entries about what they have heard behind the sealed doors.

Found in the warden's alcove in the upper crypts. The early pages are accounting: lime, sand, oil, candle-tallow, dates of application. A later hand adds a column: 'quiet / not quiet.' The last ten entries are in a cramped, careful script that is trying very hard not to say what it is saying — 'east door, lime fresh, settled by dawn,' then 'east door, lime fresh, disturbed before morning,' then simply 'east door: do not open.'