The counselors summon the office named in the hidden notation. A guarded woman, a human woman with a weathered oval face and light olive skin in late middle age enters, broad-shouldered beneath a dark blue mantle, with iron-gray hair braided close and a seal-ring scar on her thumb.
King Théoden
You will answer before the record, without counsel prepared to speak for you. State your office, your custody of the first altered instruction, and who delivered it.
Bereth
I am Bereth, keeper of the southern protection office. The first altered wording arrived beneath a lawful docket, carried by a royal courier and sealed for private review.
She places a narrow custody tablet on the table but keeps her hands away from its seal. Galadriel compares its date with the three entries already preserved, while the counselors copy every mark.
Galadriel
The docket is lawful, but its private-review mark appears nowhere in the ordinary register. Who ordered that exception, and what did you do when the condition changed?
Bereth
The order bore Saruman’s dictated phrasing, though it named Lord Herun as its authority. I copied the obedience condition into the schedule and reported the discrepancy only after the payments had begun.
The admission reaches the king’s tablet as a direct custody statement, not yet a judgment. Théoden orders the office sealed, its records brought under guard, and the next responsible authority summoned before the inquiry proceeds.
“I ask Bereth which courier delivered the docket”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +4)
Tuiwen
Which courier delivered the docket to you, Bereth?
Bereth
A royal courier named Iven delivered it at dusk, bearing the private-review seal. He signed the outer register, and I can identify the stable where he changed horses.
Bereth indicates the matching entry without touching the sealed tablet. The courier’s name, arrival hour, and stable mark provide a direct custody trail beyond the altered docket.
King Théoden
Record Iven as the delivering courier. Send guards to secure his register and stable, and bring him here under protection, not threat.
The counselors enter the name and route into separate witness tablets. Two guards receive the order, while Bereth’s custody statement remains sealed apart from the courier’s future testimony.
Galadriel
This gives us a witness to the delivery and a place to test the docket’s passage. Let Iven speak before anyone supplies him with the record’s contents.
The inquiry gains its next lawful step. The sealed docket stays untouched, while the courier’s trail is secured before rumor or pressure can reach him.
The custody tablet lay beneath the lamplight, its testimony no longer buried beneath obedience and fear.
King Théoden
Seal the office. Guard every record. Summon the next authority.
Galadriel
The trail is clear enough for law to follow, and the docket remains untouched.
Bereth
Then let it follow. I will give the inquiry everything I withheld.
King Théoden
And Iven shall answer under protection, not in secret.
So the first false word was named, its courier’s road recorded, and the southern office placed beneath lawful guard. Rohan’s inquiry moved forward through sealed ledgers, sworn testimony, and the patient weight of accountability. With Saruman’s design no longer hidden, the chapter closed in the quiet certainty that truth had found its proper road.