A wounded young man bursts through the outer cordon, clutching a rune-marked arrowhead fused to a scrap of parliamentary seal. He stumbles beneath the basalt arches and collapses at the guards’ feet.
He is Will Brigtwood, a large athletic young man with broad shoulders, warm bronze skin, dark hair threaded with iridescent scales, and a weather-stained archer’s coat. Blood darkens one sleeve.
Will Brigtwood
Do not burn that arrowhead. I recovered it from a saboteur fleeing the chamber. The runes are designed to point suspicion toward another kingdom.
The guards level their spears, but the High Inquisitor raises one gloved hand. Will’s fingers remain locked around the fused metal, his breath shallow beneath the weight of the sealed grounds.
High Inquisitor
You crossed my cordon while wounded and carrying evidence from an active inquiry. Name the kingdom this treachery would condemn.
Will Brigtwood
The Iron Crags. The mark imitates their forge-runes, but the binding is false. Whoever made it knew enough to deceive officials, not enough to deceive an enchanter.
A faint ember crawls across the arrowhead, answering the dragon traces in Will’s blood. The parliamentary seal blackens at its edges, while the wolf-mark on the ballot fragment flares once in recognition.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish the arrowhead’s true origin
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover who is sabotaging the Blood Baronies election