David Clarkson drops into the pew, breathing hard. The storehouse door creaks wider, and the Woman at the Window steps through at last, no longer soft or idle. She keeps one hand near her cloak, eyes bright on the room, not on the guild men outside.
The Woman at the Window
You were never meant to face them alone. I have watched the guild rot for months.
She shuts the door partway behind her, cutting the street noise to a low mutter. The Tannery Hand and the Reed Man hover near the threshold, tense and uncertain, while the new arrival ignores them as if they are already behind her.
The Woman at the Window
I am not with the guild. I am hunting it. Their secret ledgers name bribes, stolen grain, and men they bought in the market.
She draws a folded strip of waxed cloth from her sleeve, then stops short of offering it, measuring David instead. Outside, boots scrape closer in the street.
The Woman at the Window
Help me carry the ledgers out, and I will take you beyond the city before their net closes. Refuse, and they will hang you with the rest.
For a beat, the old watcher from the window becomes the sharpest thing in the room, and the story turns on her true purpose.
✓ Quest Accepted
Help the woman carry the ledgers out
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the city with the woman
“Take the waxed cloth from her and ask where the ledgers are hidden.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
David reaches out and takes the waxed cloth from her fingers. The woman lets it go at once, then studies him as if measuring the weight he chooses to carry.
David Clarkson
Where are the ledgers hidden?
The Woman at the Window
Below the market, in a grain cellar sealed behind a butcher’s wall. I could not go alone, not with their men watching every alley.
The Tannery Hand
A cellar, then. All this for books.
The Woman at the Window
I have names in those pages, men who smile at prayers and sell out the poor by dusk. If you want out of their grasp, this is one road that cuts clean through it.
Outside, the boots pass farther down the street, the sound thinning to a wary scrape. The Reed Man keeps his place by the door, but his eyes flick between David and the woman now, unsure whom to trust.
The Woman at the Window
Come with me, and I will show you the stair. Stay here, and they will keep hunting the room until they find someone to blame.
+ New Item Acquired
Waxed cloth
“I follow her to the grain cellar”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +3)