Two weeks have passed. Bren stands in Northmere Chapel with dust on the pews and winter light on the stone floor. The Seminary Master sits at the altar, Calm and exacting, with the clerk's tablet laid open before him.
He turns a page, then another, reading the accusation, the confession, and the seals that bind them together. The inspection is not ceremonial, it is judgment by paper and witness.
The Seminary Master
This reaches beyond one rector's shame. If these records hold, the chapel has been kept in truth only by fear.
Bren Riverglade
The records are complete. The clerk set them down as they were spoken.
The Clerk
I marked every word, master. Nothing was altered.
The Seminary Master
Then Bren Riverglade, you have done more than uncover sin. You have given the church a case it cannot easily bury.
His hand closes on the tablet, not to hide it, but to claim it. The scrutiny now has a purpose, and Bren can see it plainly, the accusation is moving upward, toward the seminary and the wider Temple of Omera.
✓ Quest Accepted
Earn the Seminary Master’s validation
“"Master, did others besides Father Hallowell know of this matter?"”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Bren Riverglade
Master, did others besides Father Hallowell know of this matter?
The Seminary Master looks up from the tablet. His fingers still on the wax edge, he weighs the question as if it were another line in the record.
The Seminary Master
Yes. The clerk knew enough to witness it, and the Lord Mayor knew enough to fear it. That is why the paper was hidden, and why it now matters.
The Clerk
I knew the accounting was wrong. I did not know how deep it ran until the seals were laid open.
The master taps the vellum and prayer strip once, then sets a palm over the second bundle wrapped in oiled cloth, as if marking the shape of the whole deceit.
The Seminary Master
Bren Riverglade, you have not meddled in a parish quarrel. You have helped expose a wound that reached beyond one chapel.
The Seminary Master
That is clerical work, hard as it is. The Temple must reckon with what you have brought into the light.
The clerk lowers his eyes, relieved to be finished and yet uneasy at what still remains unopened. The master waits on Bren, not for more proof, but for the next word.
Quest Complete
Earn the Seminary Master’s validation
“"I feared that the Temple had its sins, but I never thought I would see this shame in the light. What is to become of my pilgrimage?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Bren Riverglade
I feared the Temple had its sins, but I never thought I would see this shame in the light. What becomes of my pilgrimage now?
The Seminary Master’s gaze softens, then sharpens with the weight of judgment. He draws the vellum closer, as if measuring Bren’s words against the prayer strip beside it.
The Seminary Master
Your pilgrimage does not end at the chapel door. It begins there, with truth.
The Clerk
If he calls this breach, I will be forced to write it that way... and if he calls it service, the record changes with him.
The Seminary Master
You brought hidden wrong into the open, and you did not do it for yourself. That is not clerical vanity. That is duty, though it costs you peace.
He lays two fingers on the second bundle wrapped in oiled cloth, then turns his palm toward Bren, a plain blessing offered without ceremony.
The Seminary Master
I judge your interference no breach. I judge it service to Omera, and a hard one. Keep walking, Bren Riverglade. The Temple will want the full account, and you must give it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Give the full account to the Temple
“Is going to the Temple part of the pilgrimage?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 59)
Bren Riverglade
The Seminary Master speaks of the Temple as if the journey itself is the destination. If the path to the Temple is the pilgrimage, then every step I take toward it is a prayer.
The Seminary Master
You ask if the road to the Temple is part of your pilgrimage, Bren. It is the very heart of it, for the Temple is not merely stone and mortar, but the living body of Omera's work.
He gestures toward the open chapel door, where the road stretches out into the gathering twilight, clearly marking the route that leads directly to the Temple gates.
“Is the journey to the temple longer than a day?”
NO (Likely, rolled 88)
The road ahead is short, and the spires of the Temple will be visible by the time the sun reaches its zenith tomorrow. Bren realizes the journey is but a brief passage before his final report.
“I thank the master and begin to prepare my belongings to head out onto the road.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +1)