The blue flame gutters without wind, plunging the chamber into shadow. Beneath the witness’s table, a fresh wax seal rolls across the stone and stops against Raegar’s boot.
When Will retrieves it, firelight returns in a thin blue tongue. Cregan Lycaon’s unmistakable wolf crest marks the seal, pressed into dark red wax.
Hooded Witness
The summons names the Hearing of the Wolf Inheritance, before Oakhaven’s House of Nobles. It convenes at dawn in the capital.
Will and Aiko examine the cylinder beside Raegar while Fortis guards the stair. The parchment within lists three noble witnesses and demands the Lycaon heir’s presence.
Aiko (masked lady)
This one is genuine. The crest carries a living ward, and the hearing has already been entered into the parliamentary record.
The concealed door opens behind them. Cregan Lycaon steps through, older than the likeness preserved in Raegar’s memory, his weathered face guarded beneath a travel-stained cloak.
Cregan Lycaon
I came to stop the hearing before it begins. If the House hears that claim, your inheritance becomes a judgment before we can reach the truth.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the true purpose of the Wolf Inheritance hearing
“"Father?" i turn to him. "What is the meaning of this?"”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
Raegar
Father? What is the meaning of this?
Raegar turns fully toward Cregan. The blue flame catches the old wolf crest between them, while the chamber falls silent around the demand.
Cregan Lycaon
It means someone has forced your inheritance into the open before I could prepare you. The hearing is lawful, but the claim is forged around a truth they do not understand.
Cregan Lycaon
Your mother’s blood is the leverage. Your noble blood is the key. They intend to bind both before Oakhaven’s House of Nobles, then make the judgment appear inevitable.
Cregan steps nearer and places the summons on the table. As his fingers leave the parchment, a thin line of red opens across his palm, and the living ward flares.
Cregan Lycaon
The cost of entering this hearing is now paid. The ward has tasted my blood, and every noble witness named here knows I have appeared to defend you.
Cregan Lycaon
There is no hiding you from the record now. We must reach the capital before dawn, and we must carry proof that the claimant is not your lawful heir.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the capital
Quest Complete
Learn the true purpose of the Wolf Inheritance hearing
“"Who is doing this?'”
Raegar
Who is doing this?
Cregan studies Raegar across the table, the blood-warmed ward fading between them. His guarded expression hardens as the chamber listens for the answer.
Cregan Lycaon
A faction within House Lycaon, joined to the dark order that has hunted your mother’s line. I know the hand behind the claim, but not every hand that serves it.
Cregan Lycaon
Lady Merrow Veyr carries their petition before the House. She believes your birth can be turned into a legal instrument, and that my silence will make her argument credible.
Fortis’s fingers close around the torn edge of the forged letter. Will bends over the listed witnesses while Aiko’s shadow gathers beneath the table.
Aiko (masked lady)
Then the hearing has a face, even if the order keeps its mask. We should learn which witness owes Veyr a favor before dawn.
Cregan Lycaon
The claimant is Baroness Veyr’s nephew, a distant Lycaon cousin with no right to your inheritance. They mean to use your blood to manufacture that right.
Quest Complete
Identify House Lycaon’s buyer
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Great→Superb
“"Well we didn't use my blood to open the letter." I let Aiko and Will explain how we opened the letter.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +1)
Raegar
Well, we didn't use my blood to open the letter. I let Aiko and Will explain how we opened it.
Raegar’s words settle over the chamber. The opened parchment lies between them, its broken wax untouched by his skin while Cregan’s blood-marked summons glows separately.
Will Brigtwood
That is correct. The ward recognized a Lycaon heir, but we never gave it Raegar’s blood. I twisted the cylinder’s hidden join.
Aiko (masked lady)
I restrained the shadow ink and held the recognition charm in place. The seal obeyed the forced opening, not Raegar’s touch.
Will turns his blackened glove beneath the blue flame. The damaged leather bears the price of contact, while the parchment’s legal claim remains fully legible.
Cregan Lycaon
Your blood opened nothing. My blood awakened the summons because I entered its defense. That distinction matters before the House.
Hooded Witness
Then the forged claim cannot say Raegar authenticated it. The record must show who touched the ward, and who merely examined its trap.
“"So how can we prove this failed trap is being falsely used?"”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Raegar
So how can we prove this failed trap is being falsely used?
Raegar’s question turns every gaze toward the opened parchment. The blue flame steadies, revealing the broken seal, Will’s blackened glove, and Cregan’s blood-marked summons as separate pieces of evidence.
Cregan Lycaon
By proving three facts before the House: you did not authenticate the claim, the ward punished another hand, and the claimant presented a seal that never completed its test.
Will Brigtwood
I can preserve the glove and cylinder together. The burn pattern records forced contact, while the parchment carries no blood recognition. A competent ward-scribe can verify both.
Aiko (masked lady)
And I can expose the shadow ink’s memory without disturbing it. It will show the seal was prepared to imitate recognition, not receive Raegar’s willing mark.
Aiko’s shadow-thread passes over the parchment. Hidden impressions rise in violet script: claimant unconfirmed, heir untouched, ward broken by external manipulation.
Hooded Witness
The chamber’s listening bowls heard every word and witnessed every hand. Bring my testimony, the ward’s script, and the parliamentary entry. Together, they make the false use undeniable.
“we pack everything up. I thank the hooded witness and prepare to leave for the capital.”
Raegar helps gather the evidence. Will wraps the blackened glove and cylinder in oiled cloth, while Aiko folds the parchment beneath a veil of shadow.
Raegar
Thank you for your testimony. It may be the proof we need before the House.
Hooded Witness
Then carry it carefully. Testimony survives only when those who possess it refuse to let others speak over it.
The witness seals the listening bowls and gathers the remaining papers into a narrow satchel. Fortis shoulders the chamber’s travel pack and checks the stair.
Cregan Lycaon
We leave now. The river road reaches Oakhaven before dawn if the horses hold, and the House will already be assembling.
Cregan lifts the blood-marked summons, while Will secures the forged claim beside it. Aiko extinguishes the blue flame, leaving only moonlight beneath the door.
Fortis
Stay close in the capital. We have proof enough to enter the hearing, but not yet enough to control what follows.
“we make our way to the capital while staying alert for any trouble.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)