The council ring remains intact, but the moss is torn where the attackers fled. Dropped cords and seal-cloths lie scattered beneath the trees, their edges dark with rain.
Corren Vey
This was not theirs. The signet bears a blood-mark, and these tracks lead west, beyond every route marked on our maps.
Corren lifts a small signet from the moss. Fresh blood stains its carved face, while a narrow trail of impressions disappears toward an uncharted ravine beyond the boundary stones.
Lady Seraphine Valehart
Examine it now. If that ravine shelters the hand directing these strikes, we cannot let the clue vanish with the rain.
The Alpha Wolf lowers his muzzle beside the witness route. His hackles rise as he follows a second scent, faintly circling back from the western dark toward the council ring.
The Alpha Wolf
Another trail returns behind us. It carries blood, ash, and the Chancellor's marked oil. Someone is testing whether we watch the road or the witness.
The council tightens around the Forest Runner and the sealed testimony. Beyond the western boundary, the ravine waits under dripping branches, while the returning trail draws closer through the trees.