The Merchant in Crimson lifts Carla Lewis’s token between two gloved fingers. The hall tightens at once, paper and politics suddenly feeling smaller than the threat in his hand.
The Merchant in Crimson
This little keepsake says more than your proposal ever could, Swanga. Will your business survive scrutiny, or your secrets survive exposure?
Don Esteban Valcárcel’s jaw hardens. The warder at the doors shifts his halberd, and the merchants fall quiet, sensing the hearing has turned personal.
Don Esteban Valcárcel
Produce the token, and keep to the matter at hand. This hall judges trade, not blackmail.
The Merchant in Crimson only tilts the token higher, making sure Swanga sees it clearly, then lowers his other hand toward the opened proposal as if weighing both against each other.
The Merchant in Crimson
Then let the room decide. A man’s paper, or a woman’s proof. One of them leaves here endorsed. One of them leaves here broken.
✓ Quest Accepted
Resolve the hearing in Swanga’s favor
“Demand the merchant focus on the proposal's merits instead of petty trinkets.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +3)
Swanga cuts in with calm precision, and the room hears the blade under his courtesy. The token stops mattering in the merchant’s fingers. The proposal takes center stage again.
Swanga
Keep to the proposal. If you can read, read. If not, hand it back.
A few dockworkers let out thin, startled breaths. Don Esteban’s shoulders ease by a fraction, while the warder keeps the doors steady and silent.
The Merchant in Crimson
Hah. There is the man himself, at last. Bold enough to cut through ornament, if not always through consequence.
He lowers Carla Lewis’s token, not in surrender, but in measured respect. With two fingers, he taps the open pages and turns one leaf toward the hall.
The Merchant in Crimson
Very well. The petition is oddly strong. Names, routes, dates, all cleanly set. Someone has prepared this for a hearing, not a tavern boast.
That earns a murmur from the benches. Esteban seizes the opening, and the merchant’s guarded face tightens, his confidence displaced by reluctant acknowledgment.
The Merchant in Crimson
Mark this, then. The hall will endorse the proposal, and your token leaves this table with it. But I want the witness who made it worth the trouble named before witnesses.
Quest Complete
Resolve the hearing in Swanga’s favor