The fresh comparison copy catches a faint receiving mark beneath the coastal transfer entry. Thinned ink reveals its shape, but not whether the mark belongs to the original custody or a later annotation.
Círdan
The sealed charter remains apart. Read the copy only, and preserve every uncertainty around the mark.
Maereth
A archive bearer, attend beneath witness. Copy the mark before anyone interprets it, and keep the original comparison leaf untouched.
A archive bearer approaches from the protected shelf with a fresh leaf, dark ink, and a narrow ruler. Círdan shifts the sealed charter farther from the comparison space.
Archive Bearer 1
I will reproduce the receiving mark, its position, and the thinning around it. I will not complete any broken stroke from expectation.
Under the Court Herald’s witness, the archive bearer lays translucent paper over the copy without pressing the ink. The faint mark emerges as a hooked sign beside a partial office stroke.
Maereth
Stop there. The sign may connect the coastal hand to a named office, but we will establish that only after the mark’s layer and custody are separately tested.
“I test the mark’s ink layer under witness”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -1)
Tuiwen studies the hooked mark through the translucent leaf, then angles it toward the witness lamps. The thinning ink separates into a darker original stroke and a paler addition.
Archive Bearer 1
The hooked sign lies beneath the coastal office stroke. Its first ink was laid before the later annotation, not over it.
The archive bearer makes two careful copies, one preserving the layered mark and one isolating its strokes. Maereth keeps both leaves beside, never upon, the sealed records.
Maereth
Then the receiving mark predates the coastal transfer annotation. Enter that as a documented layer finding, without assigning the hand yet.
Under witness, the comparison establishes that the hooked sign belongs to the earlier receiving entry. The later office stroke was added afterward, leaving the mark’s author unresolved.
Círdan
The layer is useful. It places the receiving sign before the coastal notation, while preserving the charter’s lawful wording apart from that uncertain hand.
“I trace the hooked mark to its responsible authority”
SUCCESS (Legendary Lore, rolled +3)
Tuiwen traces the hooked sign across the isolated strokes, then compares its angle, pressure, and placement with the Caras Amarth folio and the preserved petition copy. The pattern resolves.
The hook is Saruman’s private-review mark, not a lawful seal. Its first receiving entry belongs to Bereth’s southern protection office, identifying that office as the responsible receiving authority for the copied route marks.
Archive Bearer 1
The layered comparison supports both distinctions: Saruman’s mark directs the channel, while Bereth’s office received and passed the material onward.
Maereth draws two ruled entries on separate leaves, assigning the mark’s authorship to Saruman and the custody responsibility to Bereth’s office without merging either finding with the lawful charter.
Maereth
Record Saruman as the source of the private-review mark, and Bereth’s office as the responsible receiving authority. The charter remains lawful apart from this channel.
As an unexpected advantage, the folio reveals a matching marginal convention: Saruman’s marks were copied only when material was redirected toward an office already bound to his protection channel. The convention identifies the next comparison point as Bereth’s original intake record.
Círdan
Then the southern route has an accountable gate, even though the lawful compact itself bears no blame.
Quest Complete
Identify the authority behind the sealed instruction
New Gift: Infallible Truth Seeker