Kina is already bent over the workbench, fingers moving fast around the waxed archive tag. Her knife-tip and a pinch of chalk trace the sigil edges, testing for a layered spell binding.
Kina
This is keyed, not sealed. Someone wants it readable, but only in pieces.
One-Eye snorts from the side, arms folded, watching the tag like it might bite him. The workshop feels tight and hot with old dust, lamp-smoke, and everyone pretending they are calm.
One-Eye
Careful. Push too hard and the thing spits back whatever it is holding.
Kina ignores him. She lays a silver thread across the wax edge and lets her gaze sharpen, reading the faint pulse of the glyphs as if they were a ledge in bad light.
Slaan
The tag is laced with a second pattern, hidden under the surface.
A thin shimmer crawls over the tag. The waxed seal warms, then gives a tiny, nervous crackle on the bench.
One-Eye
There. That is the warning. If you want it intact, slow down now.
Kina pauses only long enough to look at Slaan, waiting to see whether she helps steady the tag or lets her keep pulling at the spell.
✓ Quest Accepted
Decrypt the waxed archive tag
“I let my fingers fly to do the counter spells as they crop up, dispelling or negating the spells through wards and charms.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Slaan moves in with two quick fingers and a whisper of shadow-stitched wards. The crackle on the wax tag softens, then breaks into neat little sparks that die before they can leap.
Kina’s knife pauses. The hidden binding peels back in a thin, visible seam, like thread lifting from wet cloth.
Slaan
The second pattern is gone.
One-Eye leans closer, his scowl easing into grudging focus as the tag stops shivering under the chalk.
Kina
There. It holds now. The outer ward is dead, and the inner script is readable.
Kina turns the tag toward the lamp. Fresh lines rise through the wax, clear enough to follow. One name catches first, then a place mark, then a date pressed hard into the seal.
One-Eye
Read it out. If this thing has teeth, I want to know where they point.
Quest Complete
Decrypt the waxed archive tag
“" so Kina, you sent me to Markul, was that to get him to tip his own hand?" I ask curiously”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Slaan
So, Kina, did you send me to Markul to make him tip his hand?
Kina
Yes. He was too careful when he thought he was directing the room. I wanted him unsettled, then measured.
Kina
You were the pressure point. If he was hiding something, he would choose the wrong edge under you.
One-Eye
Clever. Ugly, but clever. That woman plays for reactions, not confessions.
Kina
And he did. The moment you came near, he started reaching for records he should have ignored.
Kina
Not because he feared you, exactly. Because he feared being seen choosing.
One-Eye
Then the bait worked. Now read me the rest before the wax decides to burn its own name off.
✓ Quest Accepted
Read the rest of the archive tag
“I cast a variant on stun and snar that stops person's and then slows it down”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Slaan murmurs the stun weave over the tag, and the waxed surface shivers. The crackle dies into a tight, breathless hum as the volatile script slows under her spell.
One-Eye
There. Keep that pressure on it. I can read the marrow now.
Kina
Good. The outer burn is gone. The inner hand is finally exposed.
The tag stops spitting sparks. Thin lines beneath the wax flare pale blue, then settle into legible strokes instead of shifting glare.
One-Eye
Names. Places. A route mark. This is not a receipt, it is an instruction.
Slaan holds the chill of the spell steady while the last hidden words surface cleanly across the tag, no longer fighting back.
Kina
Read it. All of it. If the wax tries to swallow the rest, I want to know what it reaches for first.
Quest Complete
Read the rest of the archive tag
“" should we find out what the sentinels know, like indirectly ask"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
One-Eye
Indirect is safer. This tag does not like direct hands, or direct questions.
Kina
Then ask sideways. Sentinels love procedure, routes, and who signed what.
Slaan
The seal reads like a path, not a warning.
One-Eye turns the tag under the lamp, and the pale script settles into a clean order of marks. A destination name sits beside a watch code, neat as a ledger entry.
One-Eye
Here. The question is not where they stand, it is who they report to, and who is not supposed to hear that answer.
Kina
So we do not ask for the secret. We ask who taught them to keep it.
Slaan keeps the chill spell steady while Kina compares the exposed strokes against her chalk marks. The archive tag yields a second layer, a list of names beside a hidden meeting point in Opal.
One-Eye
That is enough. The next move is theirs, and now we know where their feet will land.
Kina
Good. Then we can meet them without announcing ourselves.
“" you can always send me, the seemingly errant assassin causing trouble." I look to Kaelith" we're going to probably be banished to make it look good."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
One-Eye lowers the tag and slides it across the bench toward Slaan, careful not to touch the inked edge. Kina lets the chalk rest in her palm, studying the route marks like a map she can already name.
One-Eye
If they are hunting us, then they will prefer a clean story. Banished, disgraced, inconvenient. That kind of lie travels well.
Slaan
You can send me. The errant assassin causing trouble makes a useful story.
Slaan tips her gaze toward Kaelith, and the workshop seems to narrow around the table. The lamp throws their shadows long over the waxed archive tag still waiting to be spent.
Slaan
We look like we are being banished. That keeps the cover intact.
Kina
That is exactly the sort of lie a court believes when it suits them. It also gives us room to move without dragging the whole room behind us.
One-Eye
Good. Then the next message leaves with bad manners and good timing. If anyone asks, you are already half gone.
Kina meets Slaan's eyes with a quick, approving nod, then taps the route mark once beside the hidden destination. Kaelith hears enough to understand the shape of the plan, and the three of them settle into it as if it were always meant to be theirs.
✓ Quest Accepted
Send the banishment cover story