Theodore leads Dotti through rain-slick lanes to the salt warehouses. The silver clasp remains warm in her hand, its broken-crown wolf faintly glowing beneath her fingers.
Behind stacked salt crates, they find a shuttered weighing office bearing the old First Regent seal. Celeste and the Veiled Figure remain behind in the city of one.
Wolf King Theodore
This office was hidden from ordinary ledgers. If the witness still lives, the Regent’s household failed to erase everything.
Theodore tests the barred door. Before his hand touches the latch, a voice speaks from within, dry and sharply alert.
the living witness
Do not pretend, Grayfang. I know the blood that opened the chains, and I know who walks beside you.
Wolf King Theodore
No one living has called me that in years. Show yourself, and explain how you know the name.
the living witness
First, proof. Let the Nightshade witness place the sealed record beneath the shutter. Then I will open the weighing office.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the living witness's testimony