Cipher Point: The Forgotten Code of the Notary Assistant

Cipher Point, a manor with extensive, complex holdings requiring constant legal maintenance, was the workplace of Mr. Wallace Green, the estate’s Notary Assistant from 1895 to 1910. Wallace’s job was one of verifying signatures, witnessing transactions, and maintaining a verifiable record of all legal minutiae—a role demanding absolute accuracy and discretion. His small, internal office, located just off the master’s study, still contained the tools of his precise trade. Along one wall, hooks once held the heavy rubber stamps and official seals, now empty. On a narrow, bolted shelf, a rack of heavy, numbered ledger books sat idle, their spines faded, containing the dry, factual record of local commerce and property transfers. The air in the office was thin and strangely sterile, retaining the Forgotten residue of continuous, concentrated documentation that was abruptly ceased.

The Assistant’s Signature Guide

Wallace Green’s personal signature guide, recovered from the ink recess, revealed a meticulous, Forgotten obsession with identifying fraud. The book contained not just authentic signatures, but also his own private analysis of local forgery techniques, complete with detailed diagrams of common pen lifts, ink bleeding patterns, and paper types. However, the last section of the guide was dedicated entirely to a single signature: that of the manor’s owner, Lord Ellwood. Wallace had painstakingly traced dozens of variations, noting increasingly obvious differences that he had labeled “Discrepancy: Significant Deviation, 1909-1910.” His professional judgment was clear: the documents he was witnessing had been signed with a deliberate, consistent forgery, a conclusion he kept Forgotten from all official records.

The Finalized Document

The contents of the final drawer held the key to Wallace’s disappearance. It contained the large, official document detailing the transfer of a substantial portion of the manor’s liquid assets to an offshore trust, the very transaction bearing the forged signature of Lord Ellwood. The document was dated July 1910. The accompanying rolled paper was not a note, but a complete, personally drafted affidavit, signed by Wallace and witnessed by his own wife, stating that the signature on the enclosed document was, in his expert opinion, a forgery, and that he refused to notarize the transaction. The affidavit was dated the day before the transaction date. Wallace Green had exposed the fraud, leaving behind the evidence and his refusal to be complicit in the final, Forgotten transaction. He vanished immediately afterward, severing his professional ties and his presence at Cipher Point, ensuring the truth of the forgery was preserved within the Forgotten silence of his office.
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