The copied files remain sorted across the officers’ barracks table as Vael Turog settles into a tense night watch. Beyond the shuttered window, ward-lamps move along the walls.
The door opens without ceremony. Bren enters alone from the Hall of Welcome, carrying no papers or tools, and pauses just inside the room.
Bren
I was told you wanted me here. I brought my questions, not the Hall’s records. I will not let Domini turn my knowledge into another custody file.
Her gaze passes over the separate stacks, the sealed route index, and the staff at Sil’Thalis’s side. She keeps both hands visible and does not approach the table.
Bren
I can help compare what the Hall remembers with what these reports claim. I will not document private testimony, nor will I certify an authority I did not witness.
Bren
The southern junction may be watched already. We can go by the old marker, or send word through the willow routes first. Either way, Domini must not become the gatekeeper of our account.
Bren
Tell me what you need from me, and what you are willing to leave unrecorded. Then we decide how to approach the junction without surrendering either of our voices.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a voluntary plan with Bren for the investigation
“" come in and close the door please." As the door closes, the privacy wards I placed once I gotten the room turn on.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
Sil'Thalis
Come in, and close the door, please.
Bren steps fully into the officers’ barracks. She draws the door shut, and the privacy wards Sil’Thalis placed around the room awaken in sequence.
A hush settles over the walls as sound dulls, movement blurs beyond the threshold, attention bends away, and the warded room separates itself from Vael Turog’s watch.
Bren
I felt the wards take hold. Good. Whatever we discuss here remains between us unless we separately choose otherwise.
The sealed route index and copied reports remain visible on the table, but the wards touch neither evidence nor testimony. The staff’s faint pulse fades into the quiet.
Bren
He wanted privacy before asking anything of me. That boundary is clear, and I will keep my own boundaries clear as well.
Bren
Now we can speak without the barracks listening. Tell me what you need from me, and what must remain outside any record.
“I look deeply into her eyes. “Firstly, I owe you an apology for the way I treated you at the sanctuary. You touched a very sour spot involving Ilythiir.” I pause and turn away from her. “I need your experience as a rogue, and I need someone I trust watching my back. I called for you, Bren—not a walking transcript.” I turn to face her again, holding her gaze for a moment before lowering my eyes. “And I need you by my side.””
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Sil'Thalis
Firstly, I owe you an apology for how I treated you at the sanctuary. You touched a very sour spot involving Ilythiir.
Sil’Thalis pauses, turns away, then faces Bren again. He holds her gaze briefly before lowering his eyes. The privacy wards draw sharply against his staff, draining another stored reserve.
Sil'Thalis
I need your experience as a rogue, and I need someone I trust watching my back. I called for you, Bren, not a walking transcript.
Sil'Thalis
And I need you by my side.
Bren remains still for several breaths. The room keeps their words contained, while the staff’s blackglass sleeve dims and the cost of the wards settles into the quiet.
Bren
Apology accepted. I am not a transcript, and I will not become one. I will stand beside you as Bren, with my own judgment and the freedom to disagree.
Bren
I will help you reach the junction, watch your back, and keep our accounts separate. You asked for me, Sil’Thalis, and I am here by choice.
Quest Complete
Establish a voluntary plan with Bren for the investigation
New Gift: Alliance Pact Mastery
“I fill her in with what I have discovered already, including the iteration of Voss and how she is working with vey”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Sil'Thalis
Voss survived my earlier execution by copying her memory-pattern into a prepared vessel. It resembles iteration, but she did not return as the same soul.
Bren listens without interrupting. The warded room holds the explanation close, while the separate reports and sealed route index remain untouched on the table.
Sil'Thalis
Her continuity was constructed from transferred memory and ability. I have undergone related continuities through Kynes, Ilyd, Teren, and myself. None of them owned my will.
Sil'Thalis
Voss also worked with Vey, the chained void-born entity sustaining the archive. She used the system and its stolen names, while Vey remained imprisoned and exploited.
Bren’s expression tightens at the distinction between cooperation and captivity. She glances toward Sil’Thalis’s staff, then back to him.
Bren
So Voss treated copied continuity as authority, and Vey as a resource. But Vey chose freedom when you separated his hunger, memories, and living pattern.
Bren
That matters. I will keep Voss’s iteration, Vey’s imprisonment, and your account as separate facts. Then we can judge what the southern junction is still carrying.
“"Sorry I miss spoke I ment Merovan, that is Voss's superior, Vey is not on my list." I shake my head from exhaustion.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
Sil'Thalis
Sorry, I misspoke. I meant Merovan. Merovan was Voss’s superior. Vey is not on my list.
Sil’Thalis shakes his head, exhaustion weighing on the motion. The warded room remains still, with the reports and sealed route index untouched between them.
Bren
Understood. Merovan belongs to Voss’s chain of command. Vey remains separate, the chained void-born being you freed from the archive.
Bren
He is correcting the record while exhausted. I will not let his mistake become another false connection.
Bren
I will keep Merovan, Voss, and Vey distinct. That leaves the question of what Merovan controlled, and whether the southern junction still answers to him.
Bren moves one copied report into a separate space without opening it, marking the distinction by position rather than altering the records.
Bren
Rest your hand for a moment if you need to. Then show me which report names Merovan, and we will follow only what it actually proves.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine what Merovan controlled
“I open the report that names Merovan and trace what he controlled. I compare Merovan’s chain of command with the southern junction’s route marks.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -2)
Sil’Thalis opens the copied report naming Merovan and lays it beside the sealed route index. Inked command lines unfold beneath the blue ward-lamps.
The report identifies Merovan as Voss’s superior and overseer of the southern relay network. He controlled route assignments, false witness seals, and the sorting criteria applied to travelers.
Sil’Thalis traces those entries against the junction’s copper marks. The comparison reveals Merovan did not create the older lattice, but directed its active branches through three southern waystones.
One route mark matches the lower junction beneath the old marker. Another diverts toward a sealed holding passage, while the third bends farther south toward an unlisted crossing.
The tracing consumes a reserve in the new staff. Its blackglass sleeve cracks with a sharp report, releasing smoke, but the correspondence remains clear and the route map is complete.
Bren
Then Merovan controlled the choices made after entry, not the mechanism’s origin. The junction is his instrument, but the older lattice may answer to someone else.
A final notation, hidden beneath Merovan’s command seal, names a rendezvous at the unlisted crossing. Its date is recent, and the ink still carries a faint copper shimmer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the unlisted crossing
Quest Complete
Determine what Merovan controlled
“I turn to her close "thank you again for coming" I say in a honest warm manner.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Sil'Thalis
Thank you again for coming.
Sil’Thalis turns toward Bren and speaks with quiet sincerity. The warded room holds the warmth of his gratitude alongside the sharp copper shimmer on the rendezvous notation.
Bren
You do not owe me thanks for choosing to stand beside you. But I hear that you mean it, and I accept it.
Bren steps closer to the table without touching the reports. Her expression softens, though her attention remains fixed on the recent date beneath Merovan’s seal.
Bren
Now let us keep faith with that choice. Merovan’s rendezvous is recent, and the unlisted crossing may still be active.
Bren
He is offering gratitude without turning it into a claim. I can stand beside him and still keep my judgment separate.
Bren
Show me the route, and I will help you examine what the crossing carries. I will name what I witness, and nothing beyond that.