The Jug Rock Cipher - Chapter Ten: The Line in the Leaves

 

Dover Hill Clearing – Moments Later

Ryland stepped out from behind a cedar tree, his boots crunching the frost-dusted leaves with deliberate calm. Two men followed—Brenner and Mason—both armed, both looking like they’d done this before.

Kate shifted closer to me, and I tightened my grip on the wax-bound chest.

“Easy now,” Ryland said, raising a hand like we were old friends on a morning stroll. “No need for drama. You’ve done all the hard work. Just hand it over.”

I didn’t move.

Kate didn’t either.

“I’m guessing you’re not with the local historical society,” I said.

Ryland chuckled. “No. But we care about history. We care about what’s… rightfully ours.”

Kate crossed her arms. “Funny. I thought Silas Vickery meant for it to stay hidden.”

Ryland took another step closer, his tone sharpening.

“He was a courier, not a philosopher. He followed orders. What he buried doesn’t belong to you. Or to him. It’s older than all of us.”

He looked at the chest in my hands.

“And it’s not just gold, is it?”

I felt it then—a vibration. Subtle. Like something shifting inside. I looked down, and the wax seal had begun to flake at the edges, cracking where the cold air touched it.

“You have no idea what’s in here,” I said.

“I know enough,” Ryland replied. “I know it was stolen from a place where power and purpose were once one. And I know the people I work for believe that power can still be used.”

Kate stepped forward. “Used by who? And for what?”

Ryland smiled. “The world’s out of balance. Always has been. But this—this is a keystone. A relic tied to land and legacy. If you open it without the proper context—”

He paused.

“You could unmoor something.”

“And if we give it to you?” I asked.

“We contain it. Secure it. Use it… strategically.”

That was all I needed to hear.

“No,” I said.

I turned slightly, as if to move the box away—but Brenner raised his pistol.

Kate instinctively stepped in front of me, her voice steady but cold.

“You fire that, and every agency from here to Bedford is going to be combing these woods.”

Ryland held up a hand to Brenner.

“Put it down. We don’t need a scene.”

Then he looked at me again.

“You can’t keep it forever, Eli. That thing in your hands? It’s not just a mystery. It’s a burden.”

I nodded. “Then maybe it’s time someone carried it for the right reasons.”

Ryland’s expression hardened.

“This isn’t over.”

He turned, motioned to his men, and disappeared back into the woods.

I waited until the sound of their footsteps faded completely before I exhaled.

Kate looked at me.

“What now?”

I looked down at the chest. The wax seal had fallen away.

And beneath it, etched into the lid, were three words in a language I didn’t recognize.

But I understood their meaning.

Bound. Not broken.