Three weeks pass beneath changing skies. Orien is in a small northern wayhouse when a frost-stiff courier arrives at dusk, carrying a sealed letter marked with gray ash.
the courier
Orien Thanebroken? This bears the hand of Svala Icevein, keeper of Ashen Rook Hall.
The courier offers the letter without entering farther. Its wax bears no clan crest, only a rook worked above a ring of pale flame.
the courier
She commanded me to say that the letter restores neither your family name nor your standing. It concerns the rite alone.
Within, Svala’s narrow script describes one surviving fragment of the failed rite, preserved among Ashen Rook Hall’s clan oaths and broken observances.
the courier
There is also a note in the margin. It suggests the rite was altered before you attempted it, though the hand that made the change is unknown.
The final line invites no absolution, only examination: Ashen Rook Hall will open its records to Orien, if he chooses to come north.
✓ Quest Accepted
Examine the surviving fragment of the failed rite
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Orien’s exile was deliberately engineered
“Did Orien know Svala before his exile?”
NO, BUT (Even, rolled 58)
The courier’s words settle into the wayhouse hush. Svala Icevein is not a remembered companion or hidden ally from Orien’s youth, but a keeper who learned his name through the surviving rite records.
the courier
She never knew you before the exile. Her knowledge began with the oath fragments, and with the alteration found among them.
He turns the letter so the gray ash catches the firelight. Beneath Svala’s invitation, a copied margin mark shows a second hand correcting the rite before Orien ever attempted it.
the courier
The consolation is this: Ashen Rook Hall holds the original beside the broken observance. If the alteration can be traced, its maker may be named.
Outside, frost gathers along the shutters. The letter offers no restored name and no apology, yet it opens a concrete road into the cause of the failed rite.
the courier
Svala asks only whether you will come north and examine what remains. She promises no judgment beyond the records themselves.
“Agree to come to Ashen Rook Hall.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)