Lanternlight shivers over the wet ledger chamber threshold. The brass tally and the ledger copy still glow with matching registry marks, and the hidden treasury line hangs in the reflection like a wound in the law.
Inspector Lian
This is enough. One line, one mark, and the lie opens. Name the office that buried it, and we force the court to look.
Magistrate Wei
Carefully. If we expose the wrong hand without proof, the whole burden falls on Kareem Bishop. We need the seal, the witnesses, and the record together.
Outside the closed doors, armored footsteps halt. The Imperial Guard Captain waits on the other side, close enough to hear, not yet bold enough to enter.
Inspector Lian
The line points upward, not outward. Treasury office, audit office, someone high enough to hide theft behind procedure. If Kareem speaks now, the empire has to answer.
The chamber goes still. The tally pulses against the ledger, the ward paper trembles on the desk, and every eye turns to Kareem Bishop with the choice laid bare.
“I name the office that buried it”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Kareem Bishop
The office is the treasury office. Someone buried this under procedure.
The words land cleanly. The treasury line in the wet reflection steadies, as if the chamber itself accepts the name. Magistrate Wei draws a slow breath, and Inspector Lian’s jaw tightens with vindication.
Magistrate Wei
Then we have jurisdiction to name the theft. That is enough to move law, if not hearts.
Inspector Lian
And enough to put a face to the concealment. Treasury office work, hidden behind ledgers and distance.
The brass tally gives one hard pulse against the ledger copy. The lantern flame shivers, and a bead of water drops from the warped ceiling onto the ward paper, smearing a corner of the seal.
Imperial Guard Captain
I hear enough to file it upward. Keep the device visible, and keep the record intact.
Outside the doors, armor shifts once, then settles. Inside, the officials angle their bodies toward Kareem Bishop, waiting for what he will let them carry into the imperial record.
Quest Complete
Learn who buried Kareem's origin
Fault Removed: From a Foreign World
Magistrate Wei
Then it is recorded. The treasury line is tainted, and the court must answer.
Inspector Lian
Your evidence holds. We move now, while the ink is still fresh.
Imperial Guard Captain
Keep the ledger secure, Bishop. The doors will stay closed until this is done.
Kareem Bishop
Let them read it plainly. I am no ghost in their books anymore.
The brass tally rested beside the ledger, and the sealed fault of the empire could not be hidden again. Kareem Bishop left the threshold with legal standing won by hard truth, while Wei and Lian carried the corruption into the light. Behind them, the court waited in silence, already forced to reckon with its own account.