The Sourceward Stair ends at the low stone landing remembered from the Archives. The iron door waits beneath Bob's carved name. Beside it, the scraped inscription still holds the Caretaker's outline in dust.
Edwin Harrow
I know this door. I know the shape I left here. I do not know what I was before it.
The Warden Key warms in Bob's grasp. Ledger clasps unlock one by one, not opening the door, but exposing words beneath the dust: BROUGHT BACK BY BOB, RETURNED AS WITNESS.
Edwin Harrow
That is why the Archives could not record me. I was not taken from them. I was carried out.
The final clasp falls. Beyond the iron door waits a narrow chamber lined with vanished portraits. In every frame, the face has been scraped away except for the eyes.
Edwin Harrow
I was the presence you brought back through the seam. Not a guardian. Not a prisoner. The one who remembered the way home.
✓ Quest Accepted
Restore the Caretaker's identity
“I search the portraits for the Caretaker's face”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled -2)
The portraits yield to close scrutiny. Dust clings differently to one frame, where the scraped face has left a clean oval beneath the eyes.
The Warden Key's glow catches a second mark in the varnish: a small hooked sigil, repeated on the Caretaker's faded outline outside.
Edwin Harrow
That mark was mine. Not a title. A name.
Bob finds the hidden lettering by angling the key beneath the frame. The name is intact where the face was erased: EDWIN HARROW.
Edwin Harrow
Edwin Harrow. I remember the sound of it before the Archives taught me silence.
The portrait's blank face fills with reflected candlelight, and the Caretaker's outline pulls free of the dust. The cost arrives at once: the Warden Key burns a black crescent into Bob's palm.
Edwin Harrow
I am Edwin Harrow. The door remembers me now, and it is opening the way out.
Behind the portraits, a narrow stair reveals itself, descending toward a faint gray daylight. Blank pages open behind Edwin Harrow, awaiting names, but none turn toward him.
Reach the daylight beyond the Archives
Quest Complete
Secure a usable route away from the Archives' claim
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Restore the Caretaker's identity