Eddard's heart sank.
Two unexpected letters?
At such a sensitive moment?
He took the wooden box. It felt slightly heavy in his hand.
He pressed his fingers against the lid and opened it.
Inside were neither the documents nor the jewels he had expected, but a small, exquisite Myr Lens.
"A lens?"
Eddard picked up the delicate object in puzzlement, its chill spreading through his fingertips.
Catelyn had already risen from bed, wrapped in a thick fur robe.
She snatched the lens from him, her fingertips trembling slightly. "A lens lets you see the truth clearly."
Maester Luwin nodded gravely. "My lady is right, for this lens was not the only message. I found this in a hidden compartment beneath the bottom of the box."
He carefully drew another neatly folded letter from his sleeve and handed it over.
The letter's sealing wax was a deep blue, clearly impressed with House Arryn's falcon and crescent.
The moment Catelyn's gaze fell on that familiar blue crescent and falcon, her pupils contracted.
She immediately thought of her sister Lysa, who had fled back to the Eyrie with her child for refuge.
Without a moment's hesitation, she all but snatched the letter, scraped her nail through the sealing wax, and eagerly tore open the envelope.
Her eyes swept rapidly over the writing. Her face turned deathly pale, and the hand holding the letter began to shake violently.
"Gods above-"
She gave a low, involuntary cry, her voice filled with incredulous horror. "This is a secret message Lysa left for me-only the two of us can understand it."
She abruptly looked up at Eddard and Luwin, her eyes full of fear and anger. "She's warning me. She says-she says Jon Arryn was murdered, and the murderer-the murderer was the reigning queen herself, Cersei Lannister."