At the archive entrance, the promised moment finally returns. Pell comes down the corridor with a satchel of ledgers and travel papers, rain darkening his sleeves. His gaze drops to the heading Carciel and Serren carry: Bellmere.
Archivist Pell
Bellmere. So you chose a place, not merely an escape route.
Pell sets the satchel beside the archive door. The court's seals and summons are absent. For once, no magistrate waits beyond the threshold to define what their answer must be.
Serren Vale
We want an honest life there. Work we can name. A room that belongs to us. Enough quiet to learn who we are when no one is asking for testimony.
Archivist Pell
Then let us make the hope practical. Bellmere has a southern quay, open fields beyond it, and a guild that needs careful hands. Tell me what you need, what you can offer, and what neither of you will surrender.
He unlocks the archive entrance and spreads a clean sheet across the nearest table. The first page is no court record. It is a beginning, waiting for Carciel and Serren to define it together.
+ New Item Acquired
Bellmere travel papers
“I look at Serren. "I suppose the first matter of business is a place to stay"”
Carciel
I suppose the first matter of business is a place to stay.
Serren Vale
A small room, then. Somewhere we can set our things down and close the door.
Archivist Pell
Bellmere has rooms above the cooper's shop. I can write an introduction before you leave.
Secure a room in Bellmere
Quest Complete
Ask Pell for advice about their shared future
New Gift: Future Counsel