Three weeks pass beneath Phandelver’s ordinary rhythm. In a quiet guesthouse room, afternoon rain taps the shutters while Sil’Thalis finds a sealed place to sit undisturbed.
The door opens without ceremony. Bren enters alone, carrying a newly wrapped tablet close against her chest, and sets it carefully on the table.
Bren
I kept naming every break in the damaged account. This impression appeared yesterday, where nothing marked the loss before.
The wrapping bears Vael Turog’s divided witness-sign, but a thin blue-black impression presses through the cloth beneath it, shaped like a claim interrupted.
Bren
Marek is not here. I wanted no order, fear, or obedience standing between us and the question.
Bren
Is this evidence left by the crossing, an imitation made by someone who studied it, or an attempt to seize authority over what remains?
She unwraps the tablet but does not touch the fresh impression. Its mark darkens once, answering neither Bren nor the room, and waits for Sil’Thalis.
Determine the origin of the interrupted claim impression