Garran leads Timothy beyond the town’s last cottages. The road bends past a neglected toll shelter, where a small, thin boy, a pale-skinned child with cropped brown hair, a wary face, and a ragged gray tunic sits against a post, wrists and ankles held by iron restraints.
Garran
This is Tobin. I was entrusted with delivering him, just as I was entrusted with you. His fee was agreed before I took the road.
Tobin
No one asked me. They tied me here and told me a man would take me away. I do not know where, only that it is beyond the river.
Tobin’s voice is hoarse, and the matching restraints make the claim uncomfortably familiar. Garran keeps one hand near the boy’s chain but does not pull it.
Garran
The arrangement was lawful enough for the people who paid me. I was told the receiving party would explain the rest. I cannot name the destination yet.
Tobin
I am Tobin, but I do not know who bought the journey. Please do not take me with him until someone tells me what I agreed to.
The road lies open in both directions. Garran waits beside the shelter, the boy’s chain in his hand, while Tobin looks from him to Timothy for an answer neither contract nor reeve has supplied.
✓ Quest Accepted
Persuade Tobin to accept Garran's authority
“I point out to Tobin that he has no hope of escape, and I persuade him that coming with Garran obediently is better than receiving a whipping then being dragged on the journey by a rope anyway.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Timothy points down the empty road, then toward the iron restraints. Garran remains beside Tobin, watchful but still keeping the chain slack, while the neglected shelter offers no cover or help.
Timothy
Tobin, there is no one here to free you, and no road you can take in those irons. If you resist, they will whip you and drag you after Garran anyway. Go with him obediently, and you may reach the other side without making the journey worse.
Tobin studies the bare road, the distant cottages, and Garran’s hand near the chain. The boy’s fear remains, but Timothy’s blunt choice leaves no comforting escape in it.
Tobin
Then I will go quietly. I do not want to be beaten, and I do not want the rope. Garran, tell me where you are taking me when you can.
Garran
I will tell you what I learn, Tobin. Walk beside me, and I will not pull you unless you force me to keep you from running.
Garran unlocks the shelter’s fixed chain from its post but leaves Tobin’s restraints in place. He gestures toward the river road, offering the boy room to stand and walk rather than dragging him away.
Tobin
I will come with him. Timothy is right that obedience is safer than making them punish me first. I will walk, but I want the destination explained when Garran knows it.
Quest Complete
Persuade Tobin to accept Garran's authority