The High Priestess lifts the receipt closer to the lamp. A second seal blooms out of the wax, clear now, a magistrate’s mark pressed over temple paper. Outside the bronze door, sandals thud nearer, steady and official.
The High Priestess
This is the thread. Your father’s papers were routed through the magistrate’s office, not merely filed there.
Valeria Asiaticus
The seal ties the office to the execution.
Aurelia draws in a sharp breath, staring at the mark as if it might bite her. The High Priestess turns the receipt slightly, exposing a smear of copied script beneath the wax, enough to name a hand if the right clerk is forced to compare it.
Aurelia
Then he lied to our faces all along.
The sandals stop at the door. Bronze creaks softly, not yet opening, but the silence beyond it feels crowded. The High Priestess slides the receipt into Valeria’s hand, urgent and controlled, while Aurelia moves to the side of the archive shelf to block the lamp from the doorway.
The High Priestess
If he enters now, he will seize or smother this. Keep it visible, and keep him talking.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the receipt from the magistrate
+ New Item Acquired
receipt
“As the magistrate is afraid to touch the cursed tablet, the safest place to hide the receipt would be under it.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +1)
Valeria slides the receipt down and tucks it flat beneath the feared tablet, using the broken wax shard as a hidden wedge. The cursed thing covers the paper at once, making it look buried by the archive itself.
Valeria Asiaticus
Good. Now it stays where they fear to reach.
The High Priestess stills the lamp hand and lets the light fall elsewhere, as if nothing important has changed. Aurelia keeps her body angled to the doorway, her gaze fixed on the bronze seam.
Aurelia
If he comes in, let him see only tablets and dust.
Outside, sandals scrape once, then pause. The bronze door trembles under a cautious hand, but no one dares open it.
The High Priestess
Now the proof is hidden in plain sight. If he reaches for the curse, he risks exposing his own hand.
The room holds its breath around the covered receipt, while the magistrate waits on the other side of the door for someone else to blink first.
Quest Complete
Keep the receipt from the magistrate