The Magistrate bends over the wax tablet, beginning the formal decree of protection for the Asiaticus household. The clerk leans in to copy every word, while the High Priestess watches the doorway and Valeria stands under the altar lamps, the blood-stained tablet still in hand.
The Examiner
Before you seal that, Magistrate, the house is not the whole danger. Look instead to the innocent it can reach, the one whose name has no shield.
His voice is careful, almost respectful. Then his eyes flick to the blood-stained tablet, just once, with a flash of recognition too sharp for a mere examiner. The High Priestess catches it.
The High Priestess
He knows that mark. He is not reading the evidence, he is steering it.
The Magistrate pauses mid-stroke. The clerk lowers his stylus. Around the altar, the room tightens as if a rope has been drawn one knot closer.
The Examiner
The blood on that tablet belongs to the wrong hand. If you want the source, follow the household clerk who carried the message, not the girl who was made to hold it.
The suggestion lands like a dropped blade. It is neat, plausible, and false, and everyone in the temple feels it. The Examiner keeps his face smooth, but the High Priestess has already turned on him, her gaze hard enough to strip away the clerk’s disguise.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the Examiner's false lead
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who is steering the evidence
“"Wait a minute. It was the Praetorian who pricked his hand while examining the tablet. I saw it and testified to it. He confirmed it. What's more, I had been carrying the cursed thing for hours, and no sign of any blood. The messenger had nothing to do with it."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Valeria Asiaticus
Wait. It was the Praetorian who pricked his hand on the tablet. I saw it, and I said so.
The words cut through the chamber. The Magistrate’s stylus stills over the wax, and the Clerk looks up from his tablets as if the room itself has shifted underfoot.
Valeria Asiaticus
He confirmed it. The blood comes from his own hand, not from the messenger.
Valeria lifts the dispatch a fraction, enough for every eye to catch the stain and the broken seal together. The High Priestess turns sharply toward the Examiner, and Aurelia’s mouth tightens with quiet understanding.
Valeria Asiaticus
I carried this cursed thing for hours. No blood marked it then.
That settles it. The Examiner’s neat story loses its footing, and the chamber can see the seam where it was stitched together. The Clerk leans in, ready to record the correction.
The Magistrate
Then the stain is not proof against the girl. It is proof of handling.
The High Priestess
And of a hand eager to move the blame elsewhere. Name the man who touched it, Clerk, and write it plainly.
Quest Complete
Expose the Examiner's false lead