Veyra Nhal keeps one hand on the violet cipher tablet while the severed relay lies dark beside it. With her other hand, she presses a hidden catch beneath the records desk.
A concealed compartment opens, revealing thin restraint ledgers wrapped in oilskin. Their margins bear dates, names, and clinical marks recording injuries omitted from official custody reports.
Veyra Nhal
These are the people the fortress restrained beyond lawful necessity. Broken fingers, dislocated shoulders, prolonged bindings. The inquisitorius recorded none of it.
Seris Vaun
You kept proof beneath your own office while activating an order in the inquisitor’s name. Explain the contradiction.
Veyra Nhal
The contradiction is the reason. When officers learned I preserved these ledgers, they began searching for them. I needed the inner vault opened before they could destroy the evidence.
the head inquisitor
You could have brought this to me.
Veyra Nhal
I tried. Your clerks intercepted every report, then marked the complaints as procedural disturbances. The unauthorized order was reckless, but it forced the records into daylight before they vanished.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the restraint ledgers
“"actually head inquisitor, per your orders when a subject is to be brought in your standing order is and I quote with extreme prejudice and by any means necessary." I say leaning against a door frame.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Sil'Thalis
Actually, Head Inquisitor, your standing order for bringing in a subject is, and I quote, “with extreme prejudice and by any means necessary.”
Sil’Thalis leans against the records-office doorframe, leaving the accusation between the oilskin ledgers and the dead violet relay. No one mistakes the words for a procedural correction.
the head inquisitor
That wording exists in older custody doctrine. It authorizes force against resistance, not unrecorded injury, and certainly not a clerk’s private seizure.
Veyra Nhal
It authorizes whatever the officer wishes to call resistance. These ledgers show what follows when no one is required to explain the means.
Seris Vaun
Then the contradiction is not merely between your order and her relay. It is between the order’s language and every promise you made today.
The Head Inquisitor’s fingers close around his violet cord, but he does not activate it. The ledgers remain open, their neglected names facing him like witnesses.
the head inquisitor
You are right to put the order before me. I will suspend that wording, open these records to independent witnesses, and answer for what it permitted.
Quest Complete
Learn whether the older restraints caused unrecorded harm
Skill Upgrade: Medicine Mediocre→Fair
“" your wording is the lest of it. You where lead inquisitor in Ilythiir, you said we had two months to end the war. That was when I was just out of the inquisatorius. You wanted a quick end. Again you said with extreme prejudice. You where upset our field commanders failed and our mages acted as generals. You tasked me to finish it." I say plainly. " This has been your Hallmark. And as the necromancers say, the bell tolls for you now."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled -1)
Sil'Thalis
Your wording is the least of it. You were lead inquisitor in Ilythiir when I had just left the inquisitorius. You gave us two months to end the war, demanded a quick end, and ordered us to act with extreme prejudice. You were furious that field commanders failed and mages acted as generals. You tasked me to finish it. This has always been your hallmark. Now, as the necromancers say, the bell tolls for you.
Silence settles over the records office. The oilskin ledgers remain open between them, their injury marks and neglected names turning Sil’Thalis’s accusation into a second testimony.
the head inquisitor
I remember. I called it necessity, and I placed the burden on you because I wanted the war ended before consequence reached my own command.
the head inquisitor
He was barely free of our halls, and I made him carry the failure of generals, mages, and my impatience.
Veyra Nhal
Then the ledgers are not an isolated scandal. They are the shape of the doctrine you brought from Ilythiir into Vael Turog.
Seris Vaun
The bell has tolled, Inquisitor. Your own order, your history, and these records now answer one another.
The Head Inquisitor removes his violet cord and sets it beside the ledgers, surrendering its authority for independent review. Outside, the fortress bell begins to toll.
“"Veyra, care to make me a duplicate of those ledgers?" I ask”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Sil'Thalis
Veyra, care to make me a duplicate of those ledgers?
Veyra studies Sil’Thalis across the open records, then draws a fresh bundle of treated vellum from the compartment. The Head Inquisitor remains silent beside the surrendered cord.
Veyra Nhal
Yes. One copy for you, one for Seris, and one for independent witnesses. No single authority will hold the only account again.
She places the ledgers beneath a clear tracing frame. Violet ink lifts from each page in fine threads, settling onto the vellum without altering the originals or concealing their omissions.
Seris Vaun
I will witness the duplicate and preserve my own record of its making. The original stays here until the review begins.
Veyra Nhal
Done. These copies include the dates, names, injuries, and every blank margin. I have marked where official reports contradict them.
Three complete duplicate ledgers lie beside the originals, each bearing Veyra’s cipher, Seris’s witness-mark, and a separate notation that none grants ownership over the testimony.
“I take possession of one duplicate ledger”
Sil’Thalis reaches across the records table and takes one duplicate ledger. The treated vellum remains cool beneath his fingers, its violet lines undisturbed.
Veyra Nhal
That copy is yours. The cipher identifies its source, while the witness-marks preserve how it was made.
He lifts the ledger from beside the originals. Seris’s mark, Veyra’s cipher, and the notation denying ownership remain clearly visible on its cover.
Seris Vaun
I record that Sil’Thalis took one duplicate freely, without altering the originals or claiming the other copies.
the head inquisitor
The evidence leaves this room in his hands, and my authority cannot decide what he does with it.
Veyra Nhal
Keep it separate from Vael Turog’s archive. If anyone contests the account, let them contest a copy rather than erase the source.
The ledger settles into Sil’Thalis’s possession as an independent record. Two duplicates remain on the table, while the originals stay open beneath the tracing frame.
Quest Complete
Secure the restraint ledgers
New Gift: Deciphers All Records
+ New Item Acquired
Duplicate restraint ledger