The neighbouring house prefect lays the damp notice flat beneath a brass paperweight. Goldy settles against Lewis’s shoes, panting softly as the paper dries.
The Neighboring House Prefect
No one touches it until the ink has been examined. Lewis, remain precisely where you are.
Alexander bends over the writing table without disturbing the notice. The dates and initials fail to match the corresponding entries in the neighbouring house ledger.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
These dates are not merely absent. They contradict the ledger. Someone has altered the notice, or the ledger, and expected no comparison.
He points with one gloved finger to a rewritten initial. Its brown-black stroke is slightly fresher than the surrounding script, and the paper has buckled beneath it.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
That alteration uses the same ink as the recent School House memorandum. The resemblance is too exact to dismiss as coincidence.
The Neighboring House Prefect
Then this is not a stray notice. Lewis, you recovered it. Tell us exactly where Goldy carried it from, and whether anyone approached you.
“I persuade Alexander and the neighboring house prefect that memoranda, notices and ledgers are all irrelevant, and that instead younger boys must be caned to ensure obedience.”
FAILURE (Great Reasoning, rolled +0)
C. S. Lewis
The memoranda, notices, and ledgers are distractions. Obedience is secured more plainly: younger boys must be caned when they disobey.
The prefect’s pen stops above the damp notice. Goldy lifts his head from Lewis’s shoes, while Alexander studies Lewis with a colder attention than before.
The Neighboring House Prefect
You mistake severity for authority. A cane may compel silence, but these records establish who ordered it, and who must answer afterward.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
Your proposal is efficient only for the hand holding the cane. It discards the very evidence that distinguishes lawful discipline from private cruelty.
Alexander turns the notice toward the lamp without touching its ink. The altered initial now appears beside a date connected to a punishment, not an ordinary school duty.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
You have nevertheless identified the pressure point. If these entries name punishments and their authorizations, the records can show which prefects exceed their commission.
The Neighboring House Prefect
You will help compare the notice with the ledger, Lewis. Not to erase discipline, but to learn who commands it and where their authority fails.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the prefect responsible for the altered punishment record
The younger boy must perform the assigned task or face the consequences of disobedience.
“I explain to Alexander and the neighboring house prefect that ledgers and written records are irrelevant, and that all younger boys must instead be caned severely.”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +1)
C. S. Lewis
The ledgers and notices are distractions. Authority is secured more plainly: younger boys must be caned severely whenever they disobey.
The prefect’s pen pauses above the damp paper. Goldy remains pressed against Lewis’s shoes, while Alexander studies him with a guarded, measuring silence.
The Neighboring House Prefect
You have made your position clear. Yet severity alone cannot tell us which order was given, or who exceeded it.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
Your argument favors immediate submission, Lewis, and I understand why. It does not make written authority irrelevant when power must later be assigned.
The prefect turns the notice beneath the paperweight, then places the ledger beside it. The altered initial aligns with a punishment entry, giving the disputed record practical force.
The Neighboring House Prefect
You will compare every date and initial with me now. This is an assigned task, and refusal would bring consequences you have wisely chosen to avoid.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
Begin with the oldest entry. If discipline is the school’s language, we shall learn precisely which men claim to speak it.
The younger boy must perform the assigned task or face the consequences of disobedience.
“I smile with relief as Goldy eats all the written records, leaving the prefect with no choice than to punish everyone according to their behaviour, and ignore written records.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +2)
Lewis smiles with quiet relief as Goldy springs up and devours the damp notice, then noses the ledger from the table and tears through its written pages.
Paper scatters across the floor. Goldy coughs once, and the brass paperweight strikes the table loudly enough to carry into the corridor.
The Neighboring House Prefect
Stop this at once. The records are ruined, and no written account remains fit for inspection.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
Then the house must judge conduct directly. The dog has destroyed the evidence, but not the behaviour that brought each person here.
The prefect’s irritation settles into official severity. He orders Lewis to gather every scrap, remain for questioning, and accept the consequences attached to his conduct.
The Neighboring House Prefect
There will be no appeal to ledgers now. Each boy will be punished according to what he did, what he obeyed, and what he permitted.
Goldy presses against Lewis again, tail thumping. Lewis’s relief survives, but the paper cuts his fingertip as he collects the fragments beneath the prefect’s watchful eye.
The younger boy must perform the assigned task or face the consequences of disobedience.
“I run out into the courtyard and towards the nearby town”
FAILURE (Mediocre Agility, rolled +0)
Lewis bolts from the neighboring house, crosses the threshold, and runs into the courtyard toward the road leading down to Malvern town. Goldy remains behind, barking once.
He reaches the edge of the quadrangle before the prefect’s command carries across the stones. The scattered notice fragments lie between Lewis and the open gate, still awaiting collection.
The Neighboring House Prefect
Lewis, return at once. You were assigned to gather those scraps. Disobedience will be recorded and punished.
The gate stands visibly beyond the courtyard, but the order has changed the choice before him. Lewis turns back, his attempted escape ending in a compelled return rather than a road to town.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
You have learned the boundary. The house may permit movement, but an assigned duty follows you until it is completed.
Lewis kneels among the papers and begins gathering them beneath the prefect’s supervision. One fragment bears the lower half of a seal and a clear date, offering a usable clue despite the ruined record.
✓ Quest Accepted
Complete the assigned collection of the notice fragments
The younger boy must perform the assigned task or face the consequences of disobedience.
“I gather the remaining notice fragments beneath the prefect’s eye.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Agility, rolled +2)
Lewis gathers the remaining fragments from the stones, fitting them into a neat stack beneath the neighboring house prefect’s steady gaze. The damp paper clings to his fingers.
Goldy watches from the corridor, while the prefect’s shadow falls across the scattered scraps. Lewis collects the final corner bearing part of the seal and date.
The Neighboring House Prefect
Place them on the table, in order. You have completed the task assigned to you, and that will be entered into the record.
Lewis carries the fragments back and lays them beneath the brass paperweight. The prefect checks the floor, finds nothing remaining, and closes the ledger.
Alexander Pavlovich Romanov
Submission has preserved the useful portion of the record. Remember that obedience is safest when it is exact, visible, and promptly completed.
The Neighboring House Prefect
Your assigned duty is finished. Remain here until I have copied the date and seal, then you may return to your house.
Quest Complete
Complete the assigned collection of the notice fragments