The witchfire lanterns suddenly dim, and the ancestral harmony falters. A masked courier stumbles through the watching revelers onto the moonstone dais, clutching a torn child’s cloak.
Marrow Finch is a slight young adult woman in a weather-darkened brown coat, with cropped black hair and a copper mask cracked across one cheek. A silver note, marked with the branching-star seal, pins the cloak.
Marrow Finch
The honored guests... they are shielding the ones who ordered the attack outside.
Marrow reaches toward Lyric, but her knees give way. The torn cloak slips across the glowing stone, its small sleeve stained with rain and dust as she collapses.
Angelass
Marrow Finch. Stay awake. Who ordered it?
Angelass catches Marrow by the shoulders and lowers her carefully. Serel remains beside the open songbook, while every masked guest holds still beneath the failing blue light.
Serel Vey
The seal is identical. The oath has brought its test to this hall, and someone here knows the missing name.
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover who ordered the attack
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the victims of the attack
“I kneel beside Marrow and tend to her injuries.”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled -1)
Lyric kneels beside Marrow and presses cloth to her injuries, steadying her beneath the failing witchfire. His care slows her trembling, but the wounds refuse to close.
The branching-star seal on the child’s cloak flares at his touch. Silver threads draw from the torn sleeve into the moonstone, pulling Marrow’s strength away from his hands.
Marrow Finch
Not wounds... a binding. It will not let healing reach me while the order remains hidden.
Angelass catches the cloak before its silver note can tighten further and folds the marked sleeve away from Marrow’s body. Her gaze fixes on Serel’s open book.
Angelass
Then stop treating the injury as ordinary. Serel, find what name the seal is hiding.
Serel Vey
The cloak has revealed a path. Its note answers the oath’s script, but only if Lyric places his hand upon the witness page.
Marrow’s breathing steadies once the marked sleeve is separated from her. The page in Serel’s book darkens, and a faint second line appears beneath Lyric’s vow.
“Is someone in this hall hiding the attack’s order?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 20)
The second line of Serel’s page writes itself in silver: THE ORDER WAS GIVEN HERE. Beneath the words, one branching star turns toward the crowd.
A masked adult elf man steps backward among the revelers. He is tall and narrow, with pale skin, silver hair, and a wine-red velvet coat clasped by an empty black pin.
Marrow Finch
That pin. He wore it when the order came. He told the wardens to let the attackers pass.
The elf’s mask bears a painted crescent, but the oath’s silver thread reaches toward him through the air. Several guests recoil, recognizing the mark beneath his collar.
The Masked Elf
You mistake authority for guilt, courier. The order was meant to preserve the city’s peace.
Angelass
Peace bought with frightened children is only cruelty dressed for court.
Serel Vey
The witness page has answered. He concealed the order, and the oath now names his silence part of the test.
“Does he have legitimate authority to give those order”
NO (Even, rolled 64)
The branching star leaves the masked elf and strikes the empty black pin. The metal splits with a silent crack, revealing tarnished iron beneath its lacquer.
Silver script spreads across the witness page: NO AUTHORITY WAS GRANTED. The words shine toward every mask, and the hall’s remaining witchfire steadies.
The Masked Elf
That is a technicality. The wardens obeyed because the city needed order, and my family has served this court for generations.
Marrow Finch
You carried no seal of office. You gave the command yourself, then hid behind the wardens when the children ran.
Uneasy murmurs move through the revelers. A few masked nobles lower their faces, while others step away from the masked elf and the broken pin.
Serel Vey
The oath distinguishes obedience from legitimacy. His command carried neither lawful seal nor rightful charge. Its concealment was deliberate.
Angelass
Then the test is plain. He used borrowed authority to abandon the helpless, and the witnesses have heard the truth.