Captain Valerius drags the damp parchment closer to the basin glow, his jaw tightening as the layered names resolve. Recognition hits him like a blow, and his blade comes up between Tancred and the record.
Captain Valerius
No. That name stays in my hands.
The Hunter in the Tether slams the gate again. Rusted iron shrieks through the reliquary, and frost shakes loose from the basin rim. The cold light wavers over Tancred's scarred hand and the warped clasp.
Tancred du Forietan
He means to take it before I can read it.
Captain Valerius
Do not touch the record, Tancred. This debt is mine to collect.
The parchment trembles in Valerius's grip. Beyond him, the gate buckles inward again, and the Hunter's shadow presses through the seam like breath under a door.
The Hunter in the Tether
Hand over the names.
For a heartbeat, all three forces hold. Valerius keeps the blade leveled at Tancred's chest, the Hunter hammers at the threshold, and the basin's dead light reveals one more line of script under the frost.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the layered names reveal
“Does the basin's light reveal the name of the Hunter in the Tether?”
NO (Likely, rolled 76)
The blue light from the basin flares, casting long, jagged shadows against the reliquary walls, but the script remains a chaotic blur of ink and frost. No name emerges from the shifting glow to identify the entity clawing at the gate.
“I am taken aback by the captain's sudden turn. "Captain, these records belong to a dead house. Thou hath no claim to its contents. I would see the returned to my person. So that they may be returned to wherest they belong."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Tancred lifts his gaze from the basin and the words come cleanly enough to cut through the ruin's chill. Captain Valerius hesitates, then lowers his blade a fraction, the hard line in his jaw giving way to reluctant respect.
Tancred du Forietan
Captain, these records belong to a dead house. Thou hast no claim to their contents. I would have the ledger returned to my keeping, so it may be restored where it belongs.
Captain Valerius
You speak like a lord, and I have heard worse claims from living men. Take it, then. But do not mistake my caution for surrender.
He eases the ledger across the basin's rim instead of clutching it to his chest. Frost cracks under his gauntlet, and the cold glow crawls over the blotted signature as if recognizing a witness returned.
Captain Valerius
If the house kept this in bone and ash, then someone buried it to be found by the right hand, not the strongest one.
The Hunter's shadow still jars the buckled gate from outside, but the chamber itself stays steady, holding this small truce in its frozen breath.
Captain Valerius
We read it together, Tancred. If the names are layered, then so is the lie.
“I read the layered names with Valerius. Watching him to see if any names give him a reaction when read aloud.”
SUCCESS (Great Investigation, rolled -2)
Tancred reads the first line, then the next. The frost on the parchment thins under his breath, and the layered names separate into a hard, human truth.
Tancred du Forietan
The same hand signs twice. One beneath another.
Captain Valerius
Read the lower hand first. That one was meant to hide the other.
Tancred speaks the buried name aloud. Valerius goes still, his eyes tightening at the sound, as if he has felt the shape of it before.
Captain Valerius
That is not the name a man gives in public. That is the name tied to a debt.
Tancred keeps reading. A second and third name surface beneath the blotted signature, each one colder than the last, each one written like a correction over an older oath.
Valerius leans in, then recoils a fraction when one of the names lands. His gauntlet scrapes the stone, leaving a bright streak of frost.
Captain Valerius
There. That is the one. I know that seal from border reports, and I know what they did after they wrote it.
The basin’s cold glow steadies on the exposed layers, and the ledger answers with a faint crackle. Tancred has the names, and Valerius has confirmed which one bites.
Quest Complete
Learn what the layered names reveal
New Gift: Whispers of the Dead