Valeria steps from the basilica into the Temple of Demeter, where cool stone gives way to the warm smell of grain, wax, and old incense. Lamps flicker against carved columns, and the priestess turns from the altar, severe and unblinking. The magistrate and the examiner follow in silence.
Valeria Asiaticus
The rites are older than the Forum. The tablet is not.
The High Priestess
You say you were never initiated, yet you felt the presence of the goddess as a child. That is not nothing.
She holds the blood-stained dispatch above a bronze basin, studying the broken seal as if it were a cracked offering. Her chant falls into a measured murmur, and the flame beside her leans without wind.
The High Priestess
This corruption is not only ink or wax. Something has clung to it, something sent with intention.
The magistrate stiffens at that, while the examiner narrows his eyes and reaches for his stylus. The priestess lowers the tablet and looks directly at Valeria, as if weighing her memory against the gods' silence.
The High Priestess
If your mother walked the Mysteries, then she may have seen what you only sensed. Bring her here, or bring me what she remembers. It may name the hand behind this.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the priestess can name about the dispatch's corruption
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring Valeria's mother to the Temple of Demeter
“"We need only send a slave to fetch her. I'm sure she will gladly come."”
SUCCESS (Good Oratory, rolled +2)
Valeria Asiaticus
We need only send a slave to fetch her. I am sure she will come.
The magistrate gives a small, sharp nod, already turning the thought into order. The examiner lowers his stylus and glances aside, as if the answer is simpler than the stain on the tablet.
The High Priestess
Yes. Let her be brought here at once, if she will come under oath and without delay.
She sets the dispatch nearer the bronze basin, and the lamp flame shivers across the blood mark on the wax. Her stern gaze lingers on Valeria, then on the tablet, as though measuring both against the same unseen pressure.
The High Priestess
This is not only corruption of seal and hand. Something unclean has ridden the message, a will that clings where it should not.
The Examiner
He hesitates, then writes that down with a tighter hand.
Beyond the temple doorway, the distant watch whistle reaches them faintly through the stone. The magistrate looks to the entrance, then back to Valeria, as if the room itself has widened to make space for her mother.
Quest Complete
Learn what the priestess can name about the dispatch's corruption