While the stranger waits beneath Zena’s watch, Delate kneels beside the shut door. She studies the rainwater and gray ash tracked across the floor, careful not to disturb its thin, branching pattern.
Delate
This is not hearth ash. The binding salts are fresh, and something carried them inward.
Delate lifts a small glass vial from the table and holds it above the marks. Pale residue clings to the glass, answering the ash with a faint green shimmer.
Delate
I recognize this compound. Ashen Compact couriers use it to mark sealed parcels and verify handling.
Her gaze follows the residue from the threshold toward the room, past the table and hearth, until it stops beneath a cabinet where the floorboards show a second, broken trace.
Marra Vey
Then their courier was not merely asking questions at this door. Something passed through your household recently, whether you noticed it or not.
Delate
The pattern points inward, but not toward anything I brought from the laboratory. It was handled here, after the rain began.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the household member marked by the Ashen Compact
“*I keep an ear out for any movement or action that may give me the location of them but for now I speak with the figure* "So... you say that you are here to provide information by people who are after the numbers of my legion. Is there a reason why you know this? Or better yet you still havent even given us a name either.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +0)
Zena
So you say you came to warn us about people seeking the Legion's numbers. Why do you know this? And you still have not given us your name.
Zena listens past the rain and hearth crackle, catching no movement beyond the apartment. The stranger notices that watchfulness and shifts her attention briefly toward the walls.
Marra Vey
Because I served within the Compact's eastern command until I learned what their ledgers concealed. They are cataloguing your strength, supply routes, officers, and the people closest to you.
The stranger reaches slowly beneath her cloak and produces a sealed parchment. In doing so, one floorboard creaks beneath her boot, loud in the quiet room.
Marra Vey
My name is Marra Vey. I was their courier-master, and I kept copies before I fled. The crown token proves what office I held, not whom I serve now.
Delate
You fled with records concerning us. That makes you useful, Marra, but it does not make you safe to trust.
Marra Vey
No. It makes me hunted. The cost of bringing this warning is that the Compact now knows I came here, and they may soon know you heard it.
“*I continue* "And you believe these men to be malicious? Or are they seeking to hire? I work with both so it usually is hard to get a guess on either.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +1)
Zena
And you believe these people are malicious, or are they seeking to hire me? I work with both, so it is difficult to guess.
Marra Vey
They are not seeking a contract, Zena. They want the Legion measured before they decide whether to buy its loyalty, cripple it, or remove it.
Marra breaks the parchment seal and unfolds a cramped ledger page. Columns of names, garrisons, supply estimates, and coded marks fill the paper in precise black ink.
Marra Vey
The Compact hires blades when it can control them. Your Legion is too large, too organized, and too independent. That makes you a rival power, not a convenient sword.
Delate
And the marks beside our names? Are those plans, or only assessments?
Marra Vey
Assessments copied from their war council. The red strokes indicate pressure points. Your command structure, your stores, and the laboratories connected to Delate's work.
Delate's ears flatten, but she keeps her gaze on the page. Marra places it on the table between them, then withdraws her hand and waits.
“*I glance at the ledger reading deeply through it to see whether they have the surface decoy supply runs or a few od the actual main supply routes* "And this is the detailed and up to date version?"”
FAILURE (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +2)
Zena leans over the ledger page without touching it, eyes moving through columns, abbreviations, and red marks. The cramped script is precise enough to invite close scrutiny.
Zena
And this is the detailed, up-to-date version?
From across the table, the page reveals route names and supply figures, but its entries stop short of full itineraries. Several markings repeat where decoy runs would be expected, while genuine routes are reduced to symbols.
Zena
The figures are current, but the routes are deliberately incomplete.
Marra Vey
It is the latest copy I could carry out. Not the complete war ledger. The Compact split actual routes from their visible decoys, even among their own officers.
Marra taps one blue-black cipher mark with a gloved finger, keeping the page in place. Beneath it, a repeated three-pronged symbol links several distant garrisons.
Marra Vey
That mark is your opening. It identifies the hidden route index, but this page only tells you where to look. I can decode the index, if you decide what you are willing to expose.
✓ Quest Accepted
Decode the hidden route index
“*I nod and step back for her to work* "Of course. By all means please go ahead. The more I know the better. Though it is rather disappointing that I do not know more of this..."”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +0)
Zena
Of course. By all means, please go ahead. The more I know, the better, though it is disappointing that I know so little of this.
Zena nods and steps back from the table, giving Marra room to work. Delate watches the doorway while Marra draws a stub of blue chalk from her sleeve.
Marra Vey
Knowledge is exactly what they have kept divided. We will take this piece back from them.
Marra turns the ledger page sideways, tracing the three-pronged marks with chalk and murmuring old Compact counting phrases. The symbols rearrange into names, dates, and concealed waypoints.
Marra Vey
There. The index points to three true routes: Blackfen, the salt road, and a forgotten watchtower north of Veyr. This is where their stores move.
The chalk snaps between her fingers as the final cipher opens. A dusting of blue powder stains the ledger and Marra's glove, consuming the last of her decoding chalk.
Marra Vey
The cost is small compared with the answer, but the Compact will recognize this altered mark if they recover the page. Now you know where to look.
Quest Complete
Decode the hidden route index
“*I nod and relax a fraction* "Excellent. Thank you. Now all that is left is to address our visitor."”
Zena
Excellent. Thank you. Now all that is left is to address our visitor.
Zena nods and relaxes a fraction, though her attention remains on Marra and the altered ledger. Delate rises from the doorway and returns to the table.
Marra Vey
Then let us address her plainly. I am not asking shelter without offering something useful in return.
Delate
Useful is not the same as harmless. You brought their trail to our door, Marra.
Marra accepts the rebuke without protest. She folds the ledger page along its original creases, leaving the blue powder visible across the cipher marks.
Marra Vey
I can guide you to one route, identify the Compact officers assigned to watch it, and explain what they fear the Legion will discover.
The hearth settles with a soft crack. Beyond the shutters, rain continues its patient fall while the three women measure the offer in the lamplight.
“"They fear a legion who works off of hire. Not off of war. That is what I don't get unless they also have reason to be afraid of someone else hiring the legion. But that cost would be extremely high to rent the entire legion. So who would make them fear that?"”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +2)
Zena
They fear a Legion that works for hire, not for war. I do not understand unless they fear someone else hiring us. Who would make them afraid of that?
Marra studies Zena across the table, then turns the folded page so the blue-marked cipher faces the lamplight. Delate remains silent, listening closely.
Marra Vey
You are right about the cost. No ordinary lord could rent the entire Legion. The Compact fears a coalition of smaller powers pooling coin, access, and purpose.
Marra Vey
Merchant princes of the salt road, two border lords, and a hidden circle within Veyr have all approached intermediaries. None could command you alone. Together, they could afford you.
She taps three separate marks on the parchment. Their distances form a deliberate triangle around the Compact's eastern holdings, enclosing the routes she has just decoded.
Marra Vey
The Compact fears the Legion becoming the weight that unites them. Hired for one campaign, you could break their supply web before they discovered who paid the bill.
Delate
So the routes are bait as much as intelligence. They want to learn whether someone reaches for them, and who reaches first.
“*I study Marra to see if she truly means harm to me ore Delate”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +0)
Zena studies Marra instead of the parchment. The former courier-master keeps her hands visible, shoulders squared but not angled for attack, and never lets her gaze settle possessively on Delate.
Zena tracks the small signs: Marra places herself between the table and the door, but leaves the clearest path toward Delate open. Her breathing remains controlled, without the tension of a concealed strike.
Zena
She is afraid of what follows, not preparing to harm either of us.
Marra Vey
You are measuring whether I brought danger here deliberately. I did not. If I intended harm, I would not have shown you the routes or kept my hands empty.
Her answer comes without wounded outrage. When Delate shifts near the ledger, Marra steps back to grant space, and her eyes follow the wolf woman only to ensure she is safe.
Delate
Zena? What do you see?
Marra Vey
My danger is real, but it is directed at me. The Compact wants its records returned and its loose end silenced. You and Delate are leverage, not my targets.
“"Alright. Forgive me for having my misgivings and my caution. But now we must figure out who is marked by the Ashen Compact as of now."”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Reasoning, rolled +0)
Zena
Forgive my misgivings and caution. Now we must determine who the Ashen Compact currently has marked.
Marra inclines her head, accepting the apology without ceremony. She unfolds the blue-stained page again and draws three columns beneath the cipher marks.
Marra Vey
As of the latest war council, the Compact marks you and Delate as primary leverage. Three Legion officers are under active observation: Quartermaster Hask, Captain Rell, and your eastern scoutmaster, Iven.
Marra circles each name, then adds the salt-road merchants, Lord Caul of the border, and Veyr's hidden circle as secondary marks. A fresh red stroke crosses the laboratory notation.
Marra Vey
They also marked two laboratories linked to Delate's work, though this page names neither. The current priority is your household, then the three officers, then anyone financing Legion movements.
Delate
The red stroke is fresh. They updated the household mark after you arrived, Marra.
A faint green shimmer gutters through the blue powder, and the altered page releases a sharp chemical stink. Marra coughs once, but the names remain legible.
Quest Complete
Identify the household member marked by the Ashen Compact
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Mediocre→Fair