Redmane remains at the flagship’s rail beside the storehouse pilings, her shoulder bruised but steady. Mateo Vargas brings the Quartermaster ashore with the hidden ledger and sealed cargo accounts.
Inside the shadowed storehouse, the Quartermaster opens the ledger across a cask. Its coded entries link harbor stores to paid informants and a private chamber beneath the governor’s counting floor.
Quartermaster
These marks repeat beside cargo tallies, but they are not cargo marks. They record payments, names withheld, and instructions issued by someone above the harbor office.
Mateo lays the sealed accounts beside the ledger, matching storehouse deliveries to the coded payments. Beneath them, a careful hand has drawn a stair descending below the counting floor.
Captured Officer 1
I know those harbor marks. The final cipher belongs to the authority behind this port, but it will not open without the signet kept somewhere in these storehouses.
The officer indicates three repeated symbols, each beside a different inventory route. No attack interrupts the quiet search, yet the hidden chamber and its absent signet divide the secrets into one clear next question.
Mateo Vargas
Shall we begin with the counting floor, the informants’ stores, or the marks that point below?
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the harbor signet
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the authority behind the harbor payments