The Audit Office doors shut out the market noise, leaving only dripping stone and the soft pulse of the brass tally. Magistrate Wei lays the ward paper flat on the desk. Inspector Lian leans over it, eyes sharp. The device in Kareem Bishop's hand answers with a faint, rhythmic glow.
Magistrate Wei
We do not waste this chance. The tally is keyed to the old records, and the gold is tied to a hidden theft. If we read them together, we may find who buried your origin.
Inspector Lian
Or who wants you blamed for it. The captain outside would file this away and call it order. I call it a door.
Wei draws a folded ledger copy from beneath the ward paper, its seal already broken. He sets it beside the brass tally. The two markings flare in uneasy answer, reflected in the wet sheen on the desk.
Magistrate Wei
Kareem Bishop, place the device here. If it names a vault, a registry, or a court, then we learn which office stole from the empire, and why your coin was used as bait.
Outside, armored feet sound once in the hall and stop. The decision tightens in the room. Whatever this tally reveals will decide whether Kareem is treated as protected evidence, or seized as the missing thread in an imperial cover-up.
✓ Quest Accepted
Read the brass tally and ledger copy
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who buried Kareem's origin
“I read the brass tally and ledger copy”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
Kareem lowers the brass tally to the ledger copy. The pulse in the metal quickens, then settles into a steady beat as the two seals touch. Inked columns ghost upward in the wet reflection, lines that were hidden in the broken copy snapping into alignment.
Kareem Bishop
The seal match is pulling the missing lines into view.
A name surfaces first, then a chain of office marks, old enough to be buried but not erased. The ward paper answers beside it, its fibers darkening where the hidden crease in the rubbing was copied long ago.
Magistrate Wei
There. Read that line, Kareem Bishop. It names the treasury office that sealed the diversion, and the clerk who certified it.
Inspector Lian straightens hard, one hand hovering near the door, the other near the desk as if the room itself might be seized. The brass glow reflects in his eyes while the broken seal on the ledger copy shows the same registry mark as the hooded figure's audit seal.
Inspector Lian
So the bait was official, and the concealment was filed through two offices. That means your coin was never random, it was planted into a paper trail.
Wei taps the revealed line once, then turns the ledger copy so Kareem can see the final entry. The record names the vault, the covering clerk, and the court office that buried the origin under a sanctioned theft.
Magistrate Wei
Your origin is tied to a deliberate cover-up, but not to your own crime. This says who buried it. Now it is named, and it cannot stay hidden by one office alone.
Quest Complete
Read the brass tally and ledger copy