The three breastplates and ceremonial blade lie isolated beneath silver ward-cloths. Warden Vale unlocks a nearby rack, revealing field armor bearing the marks of active royal companies.
Warden Vale
We test these next. Begin with the pieces destined for the eastern defenses. If the sabotage reached their stores, soldiers may already be carrying it.
The sandy-haired wardwright separates a breastplate from the rack with a hooked tool. Before it touches the copied tracing, a sealed breastplate beneath its cloth gives a faint, blue-black pulse.
the sandy-haired wardwright
Wait. That one is sealed and untouched. The pulse is coming from inside the ward, not from our examination.
Warden Vale freezes with one gauntlet resting on the rack. Forgefire glints across his tawny fur as the pulse answers from somewhere beneath the breastplate's layered metal.
Warden Vale
Then the weakness is not merely hidden in the fittings. It may be listening for a matching current, or waking as its neighboring wards are tested.
The wardwright raises a silver-threaded hand, halting the attendants beyond the forge threshold. Above, the gallery commander and her guards remain with the injured knight and the other wardwright.
the sandy-haired wardwright
No one touches that seal. Princess, your sight may reveal whether the pulse follows the same severed pattern before we risk opening it.
“I trace the pulse without opening the seal”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +1)
Arzerelus holds her hand above the sealed breastplate without touching it. She follows the blue-black pulse through the layered ward, tracing its rhythm by sight as it travels beneath the metal.
Arzerelus
The pulse enters through the inner ward and divides at the adjoining layers.
Her blood-red eyes catch three answering lines beneath the cloth: one feeding the breastplate's core, one reaching the rack, and one extending toward the eastern armor marks.
the sandy-haired wardwright
There is the pattern. It is not dormant. The sealed ward is receiving a remote current through the armory's linked fittings.
The pulse steadies under Arzerelus's tracing, revealing a concealed junction at the breastplate's collar. The seal remains closed, but its hidden route is fully exposed.
Warden Vale
Then we can isolate the eastern stores before the current reaches another piece. No one opens this armor until every linked fitting is marked.
the sandy-haired wardwright
I can copy the route now. Your tracing has shown us where the sabotage enters and how it seeks the neighboring wards.
✓ Quest Accepted
Isolate the compromised eastern stores