The magistrates' office feels smaller now, as if the lie itself has weight. The ink blot spreads beside the dropped quill, and Vekra's name shines wet on the inquiry scroll.
Tragold stands before the desk while Captain Hestia and Sareth hold the room at his back. The clerks have gone pale, their eyes flicking toward the door, then the scroll.
Sareth
This is no clerical error. Someone here is authorizing removal.
Captain Hestia
And someone is hiding behind procedure. I want the magistrate brought to this desk.
Clerks
We only copied orders, we only followed the seal, please...
The office door opens hard. A magistrate in a dark robe steps in, sees the scroll, and freezes when he meets Tragold's gaze.
The Magistrate
Kobold, this is city business. Stand aside and let the law proceed.
Hestia plants herself beside Tragold. Sareth lifts the inquiry scroll for all to see. The clerks shrink back as the magistrate's seal glares up from the page.
Tragold
The seal ties him to the purge.
Every witness in the room now watches Tragold. The next word, the next accusation, or the next refusal falls to him.
“Tragold, fear taking over. Hides behind Captain Hestia. He does, however, still challenge him. "Mag-i-strate," he says, finally getting the word right. "You wants Kobolds gone... Why?" he asks, pointing at the ledger with Vekra's name being held in Sareth's hand. "Kobolds do nothing but want new home."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Tragold slips behind Captain Hestia, and her shoulder becomes a shield between him and the desk. His pointing hand still finds Sareth's raised ledger, making Vekra's name impossible to ignore.
Tragold
Magistrate... you wants kobolds gone. Why?
The magistrate's jaw tightens. He follows Tragold's finger to the page, then to the faces around him, and the color drains from his certainty.
The Magistrate
Because fear keeps order. Because the city cannot afford another hidden gathering it cannot count.
Captain Hestia
Fear is not law. You are using my office to write prejudice into procedure.
Sareth
And calling debt a crime, calling kinship an offense. This list is not protection, it is extraction.
Tragold
Kobolds do nothing but want new home.
The room goes still at that, and even the magistrate cannot answer at once. Hestia's stance eases by a breath, while the clerks look down as if the floor might open and hide them.
The Magistrate
You dare make this into a spectacle? These records are not proof, only noise.
Tragold
No. They are your hand in ink. You used fear to keep your hold, and now everyone can see it.
Captain Hestia
The clerks have heard enough. This inquiry is finished, and so is your authority over it.
Sareth
My kin will not be broken by sealed papers and whispered lies any longer.
The Magistrate's certainty crumbled first, then his color, as silence pressed in from every desk.
When the office doors closed, the purge lost its teeth. Tragold's tribe stood a little safer for the truth spoken aloud, and the city's careful lies no longer held the same power. In the hush that followed, justice did not feel grand, only won.