Father Hallowell steps into the lantern light, and the chapel seems to tighten around him. His gaze fixes on Aldren's token at once.
Father Hallowell
That piece should have stayed in Northmere. Whose hands keep it now?
Aldren
Mine, father. My father held it back when the debt was settled. I bring it back to you now.
Hallowell's mouth hardens. He looks from the token to Bren, then to the chapel stones, as if weighing an old wound against a newer one.
Father Hallowell
A debt is not erased by hiding its proof. And you, seminarian, know this house was not built on pious silence.
Bren Riverglade
The rector knows more of this token than Aldren does.
Aldren draws a breath and squares his shoulders, holding the wrapped token out where all three can see it.
Aldren
Then tell us plainly. What was owed, and what is left to answer?
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what debt the token answered for
“"Tell me please, Father, does this man still owe a debt, that you do not accept the token?"”
SUCCESS (Superb Theology, rolled +2)
Bren Riverglade
Father, does this man still owe a debt, or do you refuse the token?
Hallowell stills at the question. His eyes move from Bren to Aldren, then down to the cloth in Aldren's hands, and the answer comes out stiff with old memory.
Father Hallowell
The debt was paid in coin and labor. What was not settled was trust, and that is why I do not reach for it lightly.
Aldren lowers the token a fraction, listening hard. The lantern flame trembles across the chapel stones, and Hallowell's voice softens by a hair.
Father Hallowell
Your father held this as surety when winter hunger pressed hard on his house. He paid what he could, and I kept the pledge until he might return it in honesty.
Father Hallowell
If he sends it back now, it is not to clear another debt, but to say the promise still matters.
Aldren exhales, as if the chapel itself has given him room to stand. Hallowell watches him closely, hands empty, waiting for the next word.
Quest Complete
Learn what debt the token answered for
✓ Quest Accepted
Witness Father Hallowell’s decision about the packet
undefined / undefined
Father Hallowell’s gaze drops to the token, then slips past it to the chapel wall behind Bren, where a narrow niche sits hidden in shadow. He reaches there instead of for the bundle, and draws out a small wax-sealed packet, old enough to have darkened at the edges.
Father Hallowell
Before you give me that, you should see what your father left with me.
He turns the packet in both hands, as if weighing a wound more than a keepsake. Aldren straightens, startled, while the lantern light catches the seal, marked with the chapel sign.
Father Hallowell
I kept it closed because I feared what it might do to the boy who came for it. That was my pride, not my prudence.
Father Hallowell
If I break it now, I may mend one truth and break another. Will you stand witness, Bren Riverglade?
“I look at Aldren. "I will bear witness, if you are willing to see it opened."”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +0)
Bren Riverglade
I will bear witness, if you are willing to see it opened.
Bren keeps his eyes on Aldren as he speaks, and the young man’s shoulders ease by a fraction. The packet stays in Father Hallowell’s hands, but the chapel feels less like a chamber of accusation now, and more like a room waiting for truth.
Aldren
Then stay close. I would rather hear this with another soul beside me than alone.
Father Hallowell
Good. A witness is what I asked for, and what I ought to have sought years ago.
Hallowell lowers himself onto the edge of the nearest pew, packet resting on his palm. With careful fingers, he works the wax seal loose. The chapel lantern throws a warm flare across the chapel sign stamped into the wax, then onto Aldren’s face.
Father Hallowell
I kept this because I was afraid the past would ask more of me than I could give.
The packet opens. Inside lies a folded slip of old vellum and a small prayer strip, browned with age. Hallowell reads, then lets out a slow breath, his expression shifting from burdened caution to something gentler.
Father Hallowell
Your father did not fail us. He asked for mercy for his house, and I granted it too slowly. This was his proof, and my keeping of it was my shame. Take it, Aldren, as grace, not payment.
Quest Complete
Witness Father Hallowell’s decision about the packet