Below the counting room, the hidden floor opens around three marked crates. One charm flares without contact, sending a pulse through the copper wire toward the river landing.
Varo Senn
I am Varo Senn, and that first shipment was never meant for southern courts. Pell serves someone beyond them, someone who will reclaim every charm opened in their name.
Pell goes pale beneath Diamond’s hold. Above the exposed floor, the counting-room lookout freezes, while Ettel keeps her practice sword trained on him and listens for the river’s answer.
Varo Senn
The first crates carried a false blessing and a listening mark. I heard the handoff, Pell. You promised three waiting at the river landing before dusk.
Pell
You were supposed to be gone, Varo. I served the southern courts because they paid, not because I knew what stood behind their contracts.
Varo Senn
Then hear this warning, all of you: do not open the three crates at the river landing. Their charms are awake, and the one beyond the courts is listening through them.
At the river landing, a distant pulse answers through the wire. Myra’s violet eyes snap toward the passage, and Iven grips the wall as Ettel turns to Diamond, waiting for his next move.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the power behind Pell’s contracts
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the dangerous bundle
“I use my magic to, uh, stop. Uh, something dangerous for once. Hoping it would be enough to stop it and to contain it before the others could get here.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +2)
Diamond draws raw energy through his innate spellcasting. The three awakened charms answer at once, their pulses gathering around the copper wire instead of racing toward the river landing.
His shadowed aura influences the charms through the listening mark, softening their violent rhythm. Light folds into a dark lattice over each crate, sealing every lid and silencing the wire’s reply.
The emotional stone steadies Diamond’s focus as the charms strain against containment. Fear of his reputation makes Pell recoil, but the magic holds without touching anyone nearby.
Varo Senn
The river crates have gone quiet. Whatever you have done, the listener cannot reach through them now.
Ettel
You contained all three. No one touches those crates until the authorities and their magic-trained Knight arrive.
Pell
You sealed the shipment without opening it. Then the one behind the contracts cannot call them back.
The three crates remain locked beneath their dark lattice, their pulses reduced to faint, harmless glimmers. Myra watches the seals while Iven exhales beside the wall, and the immediate danger is contained.
“I start to speak to Pell OK, let's talk. Let's just say how many allies do you have? For some purposes. Where's, where's more of the stuff of. Of. Because we already heard that it's going to that place, Ace. Just what a part of it. It is. Because trust me. If you do not do that. My friend Ettel and her knights might not be so lenient with you somehow. But it's your choice. So choose wisely.”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled -1)
Diamond Oren.
Okay, Pell, let’s talk. How many allies do you have, and where is the rest of the material? Ettel and the city’s knights may be lenient, but that choice is yours.
Diamond’s restrained infernal presence bends the air and light around his quiet offer, lending it an alluring pressure. Yet Pell’s fear of Diamond’s reputation makes the captured broker recoil before answering.
Pell
Four allies remain with me: two lookouts, a barge-master, and a charm-breaker named Neris Voss. The other three crates are beneath this warehouse floor.
Pell swallows and glances toward the sealed lattice below. The dark containment remains firm, while the counting-room lookout keeps his hands visible under Ettel’s watch.
Pell
The barge-master is at the eastern landing with the first three. Neris is in the cellar passage beneath us, preparing the remaining charms for transfer before dusk.
Ettel
That is enough to act on. Pell, keep speaking plainly, and no one here will mistake cooperation for guilt.
“You started to speak to Ettel for once. I can try to put this guy into a place is that happened to be secured. Like the place that happens to be your place, as in. Where are your nights are at? Uh? Do you think they'll keep them secured? Because I can teleport him there. Uh uh, with my magic if I can. All I need is the name name of where it is.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -2)
Diamond Oren.
Ettel, where do the City Knights keep people securely? I can teleport Pell there with my magic, if you give me the place’s name.
Ettel
The Knights’ wardhouse is called Graywatch Hold. Its receiving chamber is warded and watched. Send Pell there, and I will explain his cooperation when I arrive.
Diamond fixes Graywatch Hold’s name in his spellwork. Innate spellcasting draws raw energy without ritual or components, while his infernal presence bends the air into a dark, narrowing doorway around Pell.
Pell vanishes from beneath Diamond’s restraint and arrives inside Graywatch Hold’s receiving chamber, where City Knights immediately secure him without harm. The teleport succeeds cleanly.
Pell
Graywatch Hold? You actually sent me there. I will keep talking, but tell them I cooperated before you moved me.
The spell’s cost settles behind Diamond’s eyes as a hard ringing, and his raw magic briefly gutters, leaving further teleportation beyond immediate reach. The warehouse remains intact, with Ettel watching him closely.
“I question Pell about his unseen backer”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled +0)
Diamond Oren.
Who stands behind these contracts, Pell? Name your unseen backer, and tell me what they want from the marked charms.
Diamond’s innate spellcasting carries the question through raw energy toward Graywatch Hold. His infernal presence bends air and light into a persuasive hush, while the emotional stone steadies the pressure behind his words.
Pell
His name is Sarith Vey. Neris Voss was meant to break the charms, but Sarith owns the contracts and commands the listening marks.
The name reaches Diamond through the warded receiving chamber. At the warehouse, Ettel watches his face, while fear of his reputation makes Pell’s distant voice tighten with every answer.
Pell
Sarith serves no court. He gathers awakened charms to build a listening road between worlds, then uses it to reclaim whatever escapes his reach. The crates are only the first anchors.
Ettel
A road between worlds? Then this threat is larger than Aurel. Pell, keep answering plainly. Diamond, we need every name and location he knows.
The questioning succeeds: Sarith Vey is identified as the unseen architect, seeking a cross-world listening road through the marked charms. The warehouse falls quiet around that revelation.
Quest Complete
Identify the power behind Pell’s contracts
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Great→Superb
“I ask Ettel to secure every marked crate I'll go to the next place is to. Stop his schemes for once. I'll use my teleporting magic to get there faster. Since I know the name, ain't that he already he spoke of? In schem.”
SUCCESS (Superb Persuasion, rolled -1)
Diamond Oren.
Ettel, secure every marked crate. I will go to Sarith Vey and stop his schemes before he can build that listening road.
Ettel studies Diamond in the warehouse’s dim light, then glances toward the sealed floor and the river route. Myra’s violet eyes remain fixed on him, alert to the gathering magic.
Ettel
I will secure every crate and keep the authorities away from the seals. Go, Diamond. If Sarith Vey is behind this, stop him before another charm wakes.
Diamond draws on innate spellcasting, raw energy rising without ritual or component. His infernal presence bends light into a narrow doorway, its shadows shaped by the listening mark’s distant resonance.
The feared reputation carried in that presence makes Ettel’s jaw tighten, but the magic’s persuasive pressure and his clear purpose win her trust. She moves toward the exposed floor and begins securing the crates.
Ettel
I have it from here. Return when Sarith’s scheme is broken, and I will make certain Aurel still has something safe for you to return to.
Diamond steps through the doorway and arrives in a silent stone chamber threaded with copper wire and dormant charm-light. The passage closes behind him, leaving Sarith Vey’s listening road ahead and Aurel secured behind him.