Pell leads Carciel and Serren through the inner records chamber. The open grille shuts out the vestibule, and a narrow stair carries them into a room Carciel has never seen.
The oath room is round and close, lit by blue witchflame in wall niches. Shelves of sworn depositions climb into shadow, while a bronze basin waits on a stone pedestal.
Archivist Pell
Here, testimony becomes part of the archive. Under my witness rite, a sealed record cannot be altered without revealing the hand that tampered with it.
Serren takes position beside the inner door, listening to the old hinges and the distant hush beyond them. Pell sets the first packet beside the basin, then places the second beside it.
Archivist Pell
The first packet, Carciel. What does it prove? And what does the second place beyond doubt?
He draws a silver pin across his palm, letting one bright drop fall into the bronze basin. The metal answers with a clear ringing note, and faint script wakes along its rim.
Serren Vale
The door is still quiet, but quiet does not mean unwatched.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure formal archive protection for both packets
“I place both packets beside the basin and describe what each proves.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +0)
Carciel
The first packet proves Maelin Hart's treaty evidence survived her removal. The second proves the archive's broken seal and links the watcher to the altered refuge.
Carciel places both packets beside the bronze basin, aligned beneath the waking oath-script.
Archivist Pell
Then the truth has two witnesses, and neither can be dismissed as rumor.
The basin's ringing deepens. Silver light threads from its rim around both packets, stopping at the wax seals without breaking them.
Serren Vale
The room heard you. No court clerk can quietly rewrite what was named here.
Pell presses his blood-marked palm to the pedestal. The oath-script closes into a bright archive sigil over both packets, recording their protection in the stone.
Quest Complete
Secure formal archive protection for both packets