The Examiner calls Valeria back to the worktable. The eastern register lies beside the sealed packet, while Marcus remains at home and the magistrate retains the other tablets.
The Examiner
The register will test the remaining marginal mark. Once it agrees with the receipt, the corroboration can return to the magistrate without weakening the custody record.
The first clerk bends over the eastern register, tracing a faded filing mark with her stylus. She compares it against the packet’s hour and seal, then reads the matching notation aloud.
The First Clerk
At the recorded hour, the notice passed from the roster attendant to the eastern stall. This marginal mark matches the receipt and records no lawful addition.
The Examiner sets the register beside the sealed packet and dictates the formal corroboration. The clerk copies each phrase, preserving the distinction between custody, impression, and alteration.
The Examiner
The finding is secured. I will send it to the magistrate under seal; your afternoon remains free to review the veteran bout’s terms and readiness.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prepare for the scheduled veteran bout
“She asks Marcus Flavius if he has any tips for fighting the Veteran Hoplomacha.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -2)
By late afternoon, Valeria finds Marcus Flavius near the household table, where the veteran bout’s terms lie open beside her practice spear.
Valeria Asiaticus
Marcus, do you have any advice for fighting the Veteran Hoplomacha?
Marcus Flavius
Yes. Do not chase the spearhead. Make her turn, keep your feet beneath you, and let each thrust spend her balance.
Marcus taps three points on the floor with his finger: the boundary, the outside angle, and the place where a committed thrust must recover.
Marcus Flavius
Enter only after the spear passes. Strike the arm or shaft, then leave before strength becomes her advantage. A feigned stumble may invite the recovery you need.
The lesson gives Valeria a usable plan, but the afternoon is consumed by repeated checks of distance and recovery. One uncertainty remains: whether the veteran will refuse every bait.
“Marcus' advice is sound, Valeria thinks, but such an experienced warrior cannot be counted on to take such an obvious bait. She has an alternate plan, which she prepared in the practice session when she leaped back off-balance, pretending a dread of the spear point. If her opponent believes she fears the spear point, then she may make an aggressive attack, allowing Valeria to get within her guard.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled +0)
Valeria Asiaticus
Marcus’s advice is sound, but Veteran Hoplomacha is too experienced to accept an obvious bait.
Valeria shifts her grip on the practice spear and lets her weight spill backward, her face tightening as though the point has frightened her out of measure.
Then she springs forward from the false stumble, driving inside the imagined thrust line and turning the shaft aside before the spear can recover.
Marcus Flavius
There. That is not fear. It is an invitation disguised as fear, and a veteran may still accept it if she believes she has found your weakness.
Marcus resets the spear and watches her repeat the deception from a different angle. Each time, the false retreat draws the point forward before her entry closes the distance.
Marcus Flavius
Keep the first movement small. Let her attack because she thinks you have yielded, then make the spear pay for entering your guard.
The alternate plan is now tested and ready: a convincing fear, an invited thrust, and a controlled entry beneath the veteran’s guard.
Quest Complete
Prepare for the scheduled veteran bout
Skill Upgrade: Medicine Poor→Mediocre