The inquiry moves into a narrow archive chamber adjoining the royal hall. Custody slips hang beneath witness lamps, while Lethwen remains under protection beside the sealed originals.
Maereth
Prepare one copy for the inquiry and one for the protected archive. Her testimony must remain separate from every earlier record.
Archive Bearer 1
The three copied titles are accounted for. Yet the route mark beside the second ends at a receiving hand unnamed in the register.
A archive bearer lays the slips in a careful sequence, keeping each original apart from its copy. A blank space follows the final route mark, where a lawful custodian’s name should stand.
Lethwen
I did not write that mark. I received the list before the route was copied, and no receiving hand was named to me afterward.
Maereth
Then the omission is our next lawful lead. Record exactly where the route mark ends, and summon no one beyond what the slips establish.
The separate testimony copies are tied and sealed. Beneath the lamps, the unnamed receiving hand becomes the inquiry’s next point of examination, while Lethwen remains protected.
“I examine the receiving-hand gap against every custody slip”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -1)
A archive bearer brings the custody slips from their protected shelf and lays them beside the copied route marks, keeping originals and copies separate. Tuiwen begins the comparison beneath the witness lamps.
She follows the ink, dates, and receiving marks across every slip. The gap aligns with a transfer recorded at the southern protection office, where the receiving hand matches Bereth’s documented entry.
Tuiwen
The missing receiving hand is Bereth’s, and the route mark passed through her office.
Archive Bearer 1
The comparison holds across the custody slips. Bereth received the route mark after the three titles were copied, though this gap does not identify who copied them.
Maereth
Record Bereth as the receiving custodian, and preserve the uncertainty about the copying hand. The confirmed passage must remain distinct from the unanswered question.
The archive bearer marks the identification in a fresh inquiry copy while leaving every original untouched. The receiving-hand gap is resolved: the route mark entered Bereth’s office, and the record now shows exactly where the copied list traveled.
“I compare Bereth’s copying records with the route marks”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +3)
Tuiwen sets Bereth’s copying records beside the route marks. Ink pressure, dates, and stroke endings align across the slips without disturbing any original.
The copied titles bear a hand unlike Bereth’s documented script. Its hooked lower strokes match Iven’s entries in the delivery register, the work of a young adult man with a lean build, close-cropped brown hair, a narrow face, and a russet wool clerk’s tunic, including the route mark’s altered phrase.
Tuiwen
Iven copied the three titles and route marks before the list reached Bereth’s office.
Archive Bearer 1
The hand is Iven’s. Bereth received the copied material, but her records do not bear the copying strokes.
The comparison separates receipt from copying: Iven made the first unauthorized copy, while Bereth’s office became its documented receiving point. The delivery register also fixes Iven’s stable and route date.
Maereth
Record Iven as the copying hand and Bereth as the receiving custodian. Preserve both findings separately, with the register’s route date attached.
A archive bearer enters the identification in a fresh copy, leaving the originals sealed. The inquiry now has both the copying hand and a lawful path to summon him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring Iven before the inquiry
“I will have the Court Herald summon Iven from his recorded stable.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -3)
Tuiwen directs the Court Herald to use Iven’s recorded stable and summon him under witness. The order is entered beside the copying finding, with the route register kept separate.
The Court Herald
By order of King Théoden’s inquiry, Iven is summoned from his recorded stable to answer under witness regarding the copied titles and route marks.
The Court Herald departs through the rain-dark passage, carrying only the written summons. Maereth records the departure time and the stable named in Iven’s register.
He returns before the lamps are trimmed, bringing Iven, pale-skinned and gray-eyed, with ink-stained fingertips, from the recorded stable. The young clerk’s arrival is witnessed, but the public summons has plainly damaged his standing among the stable keepers.
Iven
I came as ordered. The stable knows I was summoned before the inquiry, and my name will now travel ahead of my testimony.
Iven stands beneath the witness lamps, separated from the sealed records. His summons is complete, while its social cost is entered plainly beside the lawful order.
Quest Complete
Bring Iven before the inquiry