The alley opens behind a cracked wall into a neglected garden. Moonlight gathers in a stone cistern beneath overgrown vines, while damp earth muffles the city beyond.
Vibia, an elderly woman of slight, stooped build, steps from the vines with a bronze ladle in hand. Her deeply lined face, white hair beneath a faded blue veil, and ochre wool dress belong to the garden’s quiet ruin.
Vibia
You have arrived without footsteps, stranger. Have you come to drink, to hide, or to be witnessed?
She does not retreat or call toward the neighboring houses. The ladle remains lowered at her side, its rim catching a thin crescent of moonlight.
Vibia
The cistern is clean enough for a traveler, though the vines remember every hand that reaches through them. I ask only because you stand as if choosing none of those purposes.
Vibia
He is no fugitive from the ordinary streets. Whatever follows him has not crossed the wall.
Water drips steadily into the cistern. Vibia waits beside it, calm and unsummoning, leaving the moonlit garden open for Comaetho’s answer or departure.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Vibia's silence