The flooded stair spills Dotti into a broad chamber beneath the old thieves’ exchange. Black water circles a raised stone throne, draining through channels carved with seven seals.
Celeste stands before a thief-mask door, beside a prepared witness dais of dark slate. Her gaze fixes on the split mark copied into Dotti’s palm.
Celeste
Nightshade. You followed my summons, brought the Wolf King, and carried the Writkeeper’s hidden flaw straight to my door.
At the chamber entrance, Theodore remains half-shadowed beside the Veiled Figure. Neither crosses the threshold; both watch Celeste and the water’s slow, deliberate movement.
Wolf King Theodore
Celeste, Regent beneath the Crown. Explain why Magnus’s chain still bears your seal.
Celeste
Because the chain is not mine to break without a witness. The throne remembers authority, even when its servants deny the debt.
The thief-mask door opens a finger’s width. Beneath the throne, the black water reverses its flow, and the witness dais awakens with a dull silver glow.
“I step onto the witness dais and challenge Celeste”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Dotti steps onto the dark slate dais and raises her marked palm toward Celeste. The silver glow surges beneath her boots, testing the witness who approaches.
Dotti Nightshade
I challenge your claim over my family’s oath.
The dais answers with a harsh crack of light. Instead of opening its testimony, it rejects Dotti’s challenge and casts her back to the dais’s edge.
Celeste
You challenge the chain, but not yet its authority. The witness stone recognizes your grievance, not your standing.
Black water climbs through the carved channels, stopping just short of Dotti’s boots. Beneath the slate, a concealed seventh seal briefly shows a broken crown.
Veiled Figure
There is your opening. The dais will not hear a challenge while Celeste’s regency remains unexamined, but the seventh seal can be questioned.
Wolf King Theodore
Then question that seal, Dotti. Make the throne’s authority answer before Celeste asks the water to close around us.
Quest Complete
Confront Celeste about the surviving authority
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Superb→Legendary