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Smoke thins above the blackened village, revealing collapsed roofs, scattered stones, and a silence broken only by settling timber. No mercenaries remain.

A mounted reeve enters through the broken gate. He is a broad-shouldered middle-aged man with a weathered face, iron-gray beard, brown surcoat, and the lord’s sealed badge at his throat; four armed riders follow.

The reeve reins in amid the ash and raises one gloved hand. His riders spread across the lane, their horses stepping carefully around fallen beams.

The riders keep their hands near their swords but do not dismount. Behind them, the ruined homes gape open to the pale morning sky.

The words leave him steadily enough, but the reeve’s seal and the colors of a rival house turn the exchange brittle. The reeve’s men close their spacing, treating grief as possible accusation.

His rebuke cuts off any easy appeal to shared authority. Yet he studies Josh rather than ordering a search, and his gaze shifts toward the village well, where a blackened ledger box lies half-buried.

One rider dismounts and points to the box, while the others keep watch over the ash-choked lane. The reeve does not permit Josh to approach yet, but the evidence is plainly within reach.

The accusation steadies in Josh’s mouth, but the reeve’s rival-house colors make his words sound less like testimony than a charge. Edric’s riders tighten their watch.

The dismounted rider kneels beside the ledger box. Ash has swollen its lid, and the iron clasp refuses his first pull. The other riders keep Josh covered with watchful silence.

The rider works the clasp with his dagger’s pommel until the warped lid cracks open. Damp pages cling together inside, their ink blurred into dark bars and fragments.

Josh steps back from the ledger box and keeps his hands visible. The reeve’s rival-house colors remain a hard reminder of the lord he suspects, but he holds his ground and waits.

The four riders maintain their watch while the dismounted man separates the damp pages. Edric bends over the box, turning each surviving leaf toward the pale light.

Josh remains aside as ordered. Ash drifts across his boots, and the silence stretches while Edric studies smeared columns of births, deaths, and household names.

Edric closes the ledger halfway, shielding the fragile pages from the wind. His expression stays guarded, but the accusation has yielded to a fact he can record.

The plain account costs Josh the steadiness he had forced into his voice. He falters after the last word, and the pause hangs visibly between him and the reeve.

Edric’s gaze hardens, not with disbelief but with the weight of an account that may implicate powerful men. Behind him, the four riders remain silent in the ash.

His question leaves Josh’s account accepted as what he witnessed, while demanding its limits. The reeve’s men watch him closely, noticing the strain he cannot fully conceal.

The question lands more sharply than Josh intends. His composure falters after it leaves him, and the pause exposes how much the accusation has cost him to voice before Edric and the watching riders.

One of the reeve’s men shifts in the saddle, but Edric raises a hand before protest can form. The admission settles heavily among the ash, more damaging to Harrowmere’s administration than to Josh’s testimony.

Edric looks again toward the ruined homes, his guarded authority diminished but not gone. The four riders remain silent, and the reeve begins writing the sharper version of Josh’s challenge.

The words come quietly, but Edric's rival-house colors make them harder to offer as counsel rather than accusation. Josh keeps his voice level and meets the reeve's scrutiny.

Edric's pen pauses over the page. He looks from Josh to the blackened homes, then writes the conclusion into his record instead of ordering another fruitless search.

The four riders remain watchful, their presence still marked by Harrowmere's authority, but the immediate questioning ends. Ash settles across the ledger as Edric closes it.

The question leaves Josh's mouth evenly, but the effort shows in a brief hesitation. Edric's rival-house colors make asking permission feel like surrender, and the reeve's men notice the pause.

Edric steps aside from the lane and lowers his pen. The riders draw their horses inward, opening a clear passage through the broken gate without dismounting.

The way out stands open. Behind Josh, Edric's men begin their formal pass among the ruins, while the reeve watches him depart with a record that cannot restore Skalitz.

Josh has nearly reached the broken gate when a sharp cry rises behind him. The reeve’s men halt their formal search, and ash shifts inside a collapsed cottage.

A young woman crawls from beneath a fallen door, coughing through the soot. She is thin, ash-covered, and barefoot, with dark hair tied back beneath a torn gray shawl; one hand clutches a small iron key.

The reeve’s man beside the well snatches up a waterskin, while the other riders turn toward the ruined cottage. Edric’s attention fixes on the key in Mara’s fist and her soot-streaked face bears a small scar at one brow.