The guesthouse door opens before Maurice and Elianor can knock. A novice girl, scarcely past childhood, stands there in a grey wool habit, pale braid tucked beneath her veil, one ink-stained hand gripping the latch.
The Novice
Sister Agnes asks you both to come to the infirmary. Old Martin woke asking for the Vale name, and then spoke of the baron’s seal.
She leads them through a limewashed passage smelling of boiled herbs. In the infirmary, Sister Agnes, an elderly woman with a narrow face and white brows, slight-built in a faded blue infirmary smock,, bends over Old Martin’s pallet.
Sister Agnes
He was a road porter before his legs failed. His memory has been broken for years, but today he recognized Elianor’s name without prompting.
Old Martin
Vale... the blue wagon. Baron’s seal on the chest. They said the girl was already promised, but the porter would not carry her.
Old Martin’s fingers, gnarled and liver-spotted, clutch a torn strip of oilcloth marked with faded red wax. Sister Agnes has placed it beside the pallet, careful not to disturb its brittle edge.
Sister Agnes
He cannot give us a date, destination, or complete account. But if this fragment concerns the same claim, it may change how the convent judges your papers and your protection.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish whether Old Martin’s testimony supports Elianor’s lawful record
“I ask Sister Agnes to compare the wax mark”
SUCCESS (Fair Document Authentication, rolled -1)
Maurice Headsman
Sister Agnes, compare the wax mark with the oiled dispatch scrap and the fragments from Odo Fen’s record.
Maurice lays the oiled scrap and preserved record fragments beside Old Martin’s oilcloth. Sister Agnes draws the infirmary lamp closer, keeping the brittle edges supported.
Sister Agnes
The red wax bears the same three-hooked device. This fragment also carries the urgent-custody notch, though the impression is broken.
As Agnes turns the oilcloth beneath the light, a dry flake breaks from its sealed edge and falls onto the pallet cloth. She catches the remaining piece before it tears further.
Sister Agnes
The mark is not merely similar. It was pressed from the same office seal, or from a faithful copy made for Fen’s custody orders.
Old Martin
Blue wagon... chest under the grain sacks. The seal came before the girl did.
Sister Agnes
Your papers now have a witness-mark linking Fen’s forged chain to an earlier transport. I will record the comparison, and preserve this fragment with the rest.
Quest Complete
Establish whether Old Martin’s testimony supports Elianor’s lawful record