Adventure of Rika Everwood

The hooded gatekeeper follows Rika through the arched threshold. It opens into a cramped workshop of stone benches, copper basins, sealed jars, and cold, extinguished braziers.

The payment ledger warms against Rika’s side. On the nearest worktable, a dormant ward answers, illuminating thin blue lines across dust and stone.

The light traces a maker’s mark: a hooked crescent enclosing three dots. Beneath it, hidden writing rises from the table’s surface in orderly columns.

The records name Seln Var as the preparer of the black-sigil poison, listing measured deliveries to Veyra Morn and dates matching the eastern-hills consignments.

The ward’s glow steadies, revealing a final notation beneath the maker’s mark: the next preparation was not completed here. The workshop waits in silence for Rika’s response.

Rika leans over the final notation without touching the dusted table. Casewise Investigation separates its compact marks from older entries, while Basic Ward Reading follows the dormant ward’s safe illumination.

The payment ledger lies open beside the inscription. Its dates and coded amounts align with the notation, confirming that this entry concerns Seln Var’s work rather than a later alteration.

Her Feared Reputation presses an impulse toward the obvious reading, but she pauses and compares the symbols in sequence. The ward’s faint pulse rewards the slower examination.

The notation resolves: Seln Var halted the next preparation before its final binding, then moved the unfinished work through an eastern access route beneath the hills.

A final mark identifies the destination as a sealed annex beyond the workshop, not the empty benches before her. Basic Ward Reading reveals the annex’s route symbol and its release condition.

The final notation is fully understood: an unfinished preparation, a concealed eastern annex, and a route keyed to the maker’s mark. The blue ward fixes that knowledge in clear lines across the table.