Minutes of the Department for the Verification of Existence

At 12:04 p.m., Osric Quill is declared dead.

Unfortunately, he's still very much alive.

In the sprawling, sanctified bureaucracy of the Synod, where truth is stamped, filed, and occasionally misplaced, being alive is less a condition than a matter of proper documentation. To correct the error, Osric must navigate a labyrinth of clerks, forms, and theological fine print, all of which agree on one thing: the deceased do not file appeals.

Across the city, Beatrice Tallow has a different problem. Tasked with enforcing a newly outlawed word from the Index Claritatis, she discovers, too late, that the forbidden word may be her own name. As language itself begins to slip through her fingers, so does her place in the world.

When their cases collide, Osric and Beatrice find themselves bound by a clerical paradox: he is dead because she cannot be named, and she is disappearing because she once proved he existed.

Together, they must outmaneuver the Bureau of Shadows, survive the logic of paperwork, and make their case before an Archon who values precedent over truth, all before the close of business.

Along the way, something deeply inconvenient happens.

They fall in love.