Before Sister Agnes can summon the convent authority, the infirmary door opens. Brother Caldus Vey, a mud-streaked middle-aged man with a lean frame, cropped brown hair, and a black courier’s cloak, with a weathered narrow face and a pale scar along his left cheek, steps inside.
Brother Caldus Vey
Sister Agnes, I carry a sealed demand from the baron’s western estates. Elianor Vale is to be surrendered into lawful custody without delay.
He holds out a fresh red-sealed packet, but his eyes avoid Old Martin and the torn oilcloth beside the pallet. Mud cakes his boots past the knees, as if he left the road in haste.
Sister Agnes
You entered an infirmary unbidden and bring a claim against a protected guest. State your name, your office, and why you will not look upon my patient.
Brother Caldus Vey
Brother Caldus Vey, courier attached to the western estates. The old porter is irrelevant to the demand. The seal speaks for itself.
Elianor Vale
No seal speaks for me. Open the demand before witnesses, and let its authority be examined beside the evidence already gathered.
Caldus’s thumb tightens over the packet’s fold. Behind him, the passage remains empty, yet his guarded stance suggests the message was meant to reach more than the convent authority.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the convent’s protection of Elianor against the estates’ custody claim
“Is Caldus carrying another forged custody order?”
NO (Likely, rolled 86)
Brother Caldus Vey breaks the red seal before the witnesses. The parchment bears the western estates’ mark, cleanly impressed and undisturbed, with no contradictory date or borrowed cipher.
Brother Caldus Vey
There. It is genuine. The estate commands that Elianor Vale be returned to the baron’s custody for questioning and disposition.
Sister Agnes
Genuine does not mean lawful. This order names a claim, but provides no court sentence, no witness to an offense, and no authority over a guest under convent protection.
The demand establishes a harder truth: Fen’s forged chain is not the source of every threat. The western estates still assert the baron’s claim through an authentic seal.
Elianor Vale
Then the baron has not abandoned the claim. He has only stopped pretending that a false custody order makes it lawful.
Brother Caldus Vey
I was told the convent would obey the seal. I was not told the old porter had evidence, or that you had witnesses prepared.
Sister Agnes
You will remain here while this demand is copied into our record. No protected guest leaves under pressure, and no evidence leaves this infirmary.
“I inform Sister Agnes that the baron only seeks custody of Elianor to siphon the power of her patron, which would likely kill her. And as a result I would be duty bound to execute the Baron. Sister Agnes could two lives by protecting Elianor.”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Maurice Headsman
Sister Agnes, the baron seeks Elianor’s custody to siphon her patron’s power. That would likely kill her. If he persists, I would be duty bound to execute him. By protecting Elianor, you could save two lives.
The infirmary falls silent. Old Martin’s breathing rasps beneath the chapel bell’s distant echo, while Caldus lowers the authentic demand as though its weight has changed.
Sister Agnes
Then this is no custody dispute. It is a threatened killing, dressed in lawful language. Elianor remains under convent protection.
Brother Caldus Vey
You accuse the baron of murder before witnesses, Maurice Headsman. If I carry that charge back, his answer will be severe.
Elianor Vale
Let him answer. I will not be surrendered so another man may harvest the power my patron freely gave me.
Sister Agnes takes the demand from Caldus and places it beside the oilcloth fragment, the forged dispatch, and Elianor’s papers. Her hand does not tremble.
Sister Agnes
Caldus Vey, you will remain as a witnessed messenger. I will send this record to the convent authority and the duke’s court. The baron receives no victim from this house.
Quest Complete
Secure the convent’s protection of Elianor against the estates’ custody claim