Four weeks pass. Near Saint Orra, Maurice works the roadside hospice, watching the approaches while pilgrims, drovers, and wounded travelers seek shelter beneath its rain-dark eaves.
A young adult woman arrives beneath a plain brown traveling cloak. Her silver throat mark is visible, and a leather document case hangs sealed at her belt.
Elianor Vale
Maurice Headsman. I have lawful papers, and no one owns my passage now. I came because my freedom has not made the road easy.
She stops several paces away, keeping her hands visible. Mud stains her hem, but her posture is steady, and the hospice bell sounds softly behind her.
Elianor Vale
I tried to establish myself in Saint Orra’s market quarter. Three households withdrew their offers after hearing whose former claim protected me.
Elianor Vale
I ask you to escort me to the western convent lands, where a reeve has offered honest work, and to stand witness while I present my papers.
She waits in the road without stepping closer, leaving the request between them. Behind her, the hospice doors remain open, while distant riders move along the ridge.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escort the bride to the western convent lands
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the bride’s acceptance into honest work
“Ask the bride her name”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Maurice Headsman
What is your name?
The question carries across the wet road. Behind the bride, one of the distant riders, a young adult human man in a dark hooded riding cloak, his lean silhouette visible at this distance slows on the ridge, turning briefly toward the hospice bell and the halted travelers.
Elianor Vale
I am Elianor Vale. The name was mine before the baron’s household tried to make it part of their claim.
She touches the sealed document case at her belt, then lowers her hand. The rider continues watching, and the pause has made their meeting visible from the ridge.
Elianor Vale
You may write Elianor Vale in your witness statement. I want the convent reeve to receive me under my own name, not beneath anyone else’s protection.
The hospice doors remain open behind Maurice, offering shelter if needed. On the ridge, the rider finally turns away, but the encounter has cost them privacy.
“Do you want to learn the executioner's trade while we walk?”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Maurice Headsman
Do you want to learn the executioner's trade while we walk?
Elianor studies Maurice for a moment, then steps from the road toward the hospice path. The ridge rider is now hidden beyond the wet rise.
Elianor Vale
Yes. Not because I want a life of killing, but because I want to understand the work that carried you through my danger.
They leave the hospice eaves together, keeping to the muddy western track. Elianor gathers her cloak, while the bell fades behind them in the rain.
Elianor Vale
Teach me what the law requires first. What must an executioner know before he ever raises a hand?
Elianor Vale
If I understand the duty, perhaps I can recognize the difference between lawful authority and a cruel claim.
The western road bends between dripping hedges. Elianor walks beside Maurice beneath the grey sky, ready to learn the trade's burdens, limits, and obligations.
“The duty is to extract the truth and punish those that defy the law, harm others, or try to obtain unholy power through evil means. Usually a trial is required first.”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Maurice Headsman
An executioner serves the law, not his own anger. His duty is to uncover the truth, then punish those who defy lawful judgment, harm others, or seek unholy power through evil means. Usually, a trial must come first.
Rain beads on the hedges as Maurice’s lesson travels along the western track. Elianor listens closely, her document case tapping softly against her hip.
Elianor Vale
Then truth must be more than an accusation, and law more than a seal. How does an executioner know the difference?
Maurice Headsman
By evidence, witnesses, and proper authority. A sentence belongs to a court or lawful power. The executioner carries it out, not invents it.
The answer gives Elianor a rule, but not the certainty she sought. Ahead, the western track divides around a flooded ditch, and both branches bear recent hoofprints.
Elianor Vale
That is the part I still cannot trust. The baron had seals, witnesses, and a ritual. If obedience is not enough, what must I examine first?
Elianor Vale
Teach me to test the authority itself before we choose a road. I will not mistake a stamped claim for justice again.
“The baron tried to siphon power from you patron, that alone was enough to negate his authority, and took precedence over any legal claim he had. Simply put now amount of authority can justify actions taken to harm innocent people.”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Maurice Headsman
The baron’s attempt to siphon power from your patron invalidated his authority. No legal claim can justify harming an innocent person.
The flooded ditch murmurs beside the western track. Elianor slows, her fingers resting against the sealed document case as the lesson settles into the rain.
Elianor Vale
Then his seal could not make the ritual lawful. He had authority only until he used it to harm someone he was bound to protect.
Maurice Headsman
Authority ends where deliberate harm to the innocent begins. A seal, title, or command cannot turn injustice into duty.
Elianor looks toward the two hoof-marked branches, then back to Maurice. Her expression is sober, but the question in it has become sharper and more useful.
Elianor Vale
Then I must ask what the authority protects, whom it harms, and whether the act itself violates the law it claims to serve. I understand.
“How is your bond with your patron. Has he granted you any more magic, and how was your training to deepen that bond?”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Maurice Headsman
How is your bond with your patron? Has he granted you any more magic, and how were you trained to deepen that bond?
Elianor stops beside the flooded ditch. Rain darkens her cloak, and her fingers rise to the silver mark at her throat without touching it.
Elianor Vale
The bond is clear now. I feel his presence when I pray, but he has not made me powerful. He has given me steadiness, and once, a warmth that stopped my hands from shaking.
Elianor Vale
I must describe what happened without turning a gift into a boast.
Elianor Vale
Before the baron took me, my patron’s servants taught me prayers, fasting, and the keeping of honest accounts. They said a bond deepens through obedience freely given, not suffering imposed.
She looks toward the two branches, then back to Maurice. The answer carries no display of power, only the careful confidence of someone reclaiming a practice once interrupted.
Elianor Vale
Since Redmere, I train by prayer at dawn, service among the poor, and refusing any command that asks me to betray the innocent. If more magic comes, it must come through that freedom.
“I lead Elianor along the western branch”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Maurice chooses the western branch and leads Elianor around the flooded ditch. The track rises beneath dripping hedges, its firmer ground marked by fresh but fading hoofprints.
Elianor Vale
This road is quieter. I can pray while walking, and still keep watch on where my feet carry me.
Elianor follows at Maurice’s shoulder, gathering her brown cloak clear of the mud. Her sealed document case remains fastened at her belt, untouched and secure.
Elianor Vale
He does not choose for me. He shows me the road, then leaves me free to understand why.
The western branch leaves the flooded ground and enters a stand of ash trees. Rain softens behind them, while pale daylight breaks through the thinning clouds.
Elianor Vale
When we reach the convent lands, I will present my name first, then my papers. No household claim will stand between those two facts.
Together they advance along the western road, safely beyond the fork and committed to the convent lands ahead. Elianor keeps pace, steady and attentive beneath the rain.
“I rehearse our witness statement with Elianor”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Beneath the ash trees, Maurice halts beside a fallen trunk and rehearses the statement with Elianor, ordering its facts by witness, document, and lawful consequence.
Elianor Vale
I am Elianor Vale. The baron’s household restrained my patron’s bond, claimed authority over me, and treated coercion as consent.
Elianor repeats each point until her account stays plain and chronological. Rain gathers on the document case, and its leather fastening darkens with damp.
Elianor Vale
Maurice Headsman witnessed my removal from the ritual. Ser Aldric Venn, Brother Harl, Mara Quill, and Tomas Vey can confirm the evidence and its custody.
A covered cart passes on the lower road, its driver glancing toward them as their voices carry through the wet trees. Elianor lowers her volume but does not lose the sequence.
Elianor Vale
I present these papers under my own name. I seek work freely offered, and no former household claim has lawful standing over my passage.
The statement is complete, witnesses named, and the cost is a dampened case and unwanted notice from the road. Elianor secures the fastening and resumes walking beside Maurice.
“Is someone tracking us from the lower road?”
NO, BUT (Unlikely, rolled 39)
The lower road remains empty behind them. The covered cart has continued east, and no rider follows its wheel tracks through the wet clay.
Elianor Vale
No one tracked us. The driver only noticed movement beneath the trees.
Near the fallen trunk, the rain reveals a second set of older cart ruts leaving the lower road and climbing west between the ash trees.
Elianor Vale
Those ruts lead away from the road. They may reach the convent lands without passing the market quarter.
The side track is narrow but firm beneath the leaf mould, screened from passing eyes by ash and hazel. Its mud holds no fresh hoofprints.
Elianor Vale
The road did not find us. It has shown us another way to arrive openly, without asking strangers to hide me.
Beyond the trees, a low stone boundary wall appears through the rain, bearing a weathered pilgrim’s mark. The convent lands lie somewhere beyond it.
“I follow the ruts toward the convent lands”
SUCCESS (Good Survival, rolled -1)
Maurice follows the old cart ruts beneath the ash trees, keeping the firmer ground beside the mossy wall. Elianor walks at his shoulder, her cloak gathered clear of the mud.
Elianor Vale
The pilgrim’s mark is still visible. Whoever used this track intended to arrive without spectacle.
The ruts pass through a narrow gap in the boundary wall and enter the convent lands. Beyond it, wet pasture slopes toward a stone guesthouse and a small chapel.
Elianor Vale
I have arrived under my own name, carrying proof instead of asking anyone to conceal me.
A bell sounds once from the chapel. Smoke rises from the guesthouse chimney, and a covered well stands beside the path. No guard blocks their entry.
Elianor Vale
There is the place. I will present myself first, then the papers, exactly as we rehearsed.
Maurice and Elianor reach the convent guesthouse safely, leaving the rutted track behind them. The western journey is complete, and her lawful presentation can begin beneath the convent’s protection.
Quest Complete
Escort the bride to the western convent lands
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Great→Superb