The clerk’s stylus lifts from the wax. The accusation stands in the tablet, plain and final. Then the chapel doors slam wide as two guards stride in, hands on their sword hilts.
The First Guard
Hand over the seditious writings. Now.
Father Hallowell steps from the altar, pale but steady, placing himself between the guards and the nave. Alexandra shifts sharply in front of the clerk, blocking the tablet with her body.
Father Hallowell
This is a house of Omera. You will not seize witness from sacred ground.
The Second Guard
The Mayor names this theft and falsehood. Yield the papers, and no blood need be spilled.
The clerk tightens his grip on the wax tablet, eyes darting to Bren and then to the doors. Outside, more boots crunch in the yard, and the dispute turns from ink to force.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the accusation records from the guards
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the accusation records to safety
“(Sanctuary Defender) "I know of no dominion where earthly authority may challenge the temple in its own house. You may leave your swords at the door."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Bren Riverglade
I know of no dominion where earthly authority may challenge the temple in its own house. Leave your swords at the door.
Bren stands firm, and the words land cleanly in the nave. The first guard halts in the doorway, his hand loosening from the hilt. The second guard glances to his companion, then to Father Hallowell, as if weighing the chapel stones against the mayor’s seal.
The First Guard
You would have us disarm here?
Alexandra keeps her body between the clerk and the men at the door, chin lifted, while the clerk tightens both hands around the tablet. The wax record stays pressed to his chest, untouched and out of reach.
The Second Guard
In the chapel, then. But make no mistake, we take account of what is written.
Father Hallowell
Then take it with open ears, not drawn steel. This house hears before it yields.
The first guard lowers his hand from the hilt. Neither man advances. The doors remain open behind them, but the accusation records stay with the clerk, safe for the moment in the chapel’s hands.
Quest Complete
Protect the accusation records from the guards
“"Now, will the mayor's men take his own clerk with witnesses here, before Omera in her house? Or out in the open in daylight? Where all may see the mayor's own seal on the document you wish to seize?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Bren lets the challenge hang in the air a moment longer, and the doorway feels suddenly small.
The first guard’s jaw tightens. He shifts his weight back instead of forward, eyes flicking to the clerk, then to the chapel floor.
The First Guard
We are not here to drag a clerk through holy ground.
The Second Guard
We came for what is written, not for blood.
The clerk loosens one hand from the tablet at last, enough to show the mayor’s seal smeared in wax and lampblack. Alexandra does not move, but her shoulders ease by a fraction.
The Clerk
Then let it be said plainly, and in sight of all. I keep the record, and I leave with it.
The guards trade one last glance. Neither reaches for steel. Neither steps in. The tablet stays with the clerk, and the open doors become an exit instead of a threat.
Quest Complete
Get the accusation records to safety
New Gift: Steadfast Archivist