Two weeks pass. Doku enters the newly opened archive annex, where cedar shelves, fresh plaster, and shuttered windows keep the palace wards distant and the air unnervingly still.
The masked clerk waits alone at a narrow table. Their slight young-adult form remains wrapped in layered brown robes, gloved hands folded carefully over a bundle of copied testimony.
The Masked Clerk
Lady Nohara, I requested privacy because these copies cannot safely return to the palace archive.
The clerk loosens the bundle’s cord without breaking its wax, revealing copied depositions, commission marks, and a chain of authorizations absent from the official ledger.
The Masked Clerk
The sealed vessel was commissioned by a living patron beyond the palace. The records trace payment and instruction to them, not to any royal office.
Their gloved hands begin to shake beneath the careful concealment. The papers rustle softly, and the clerk keeps glancing toward the annex door as though expecting footsteps.
The Masked Clerk
I believe the discovery has made me a target. I brought the testimony to you because the palace wards no longer feel like protection.
✓ Quest Accepted
Place the masked clerk under reliable protection
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the living patron behind the sealed vessel
“"You were smart to come here. I'll read what you left me. I will place you under Nohara protection, so starting today you will be staying close to me and my family." I also open the note to read.”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Doku Nohara
You were smart to come here. I will read what you left me, and place you under Nohara protection. From today, you stay close to me and my family.
Doku draws the copied testimony toward herself, breaks the bundle’s wax, and opens the note among the depositions. Cedar dust and old ink scent the still air.
The Masked Clerk
Then I accept, Lady Nohara. I will keep your confidence, follow your household’s rules, and speak only when the record requires it.
The note bears a commission mark matching the sealed vessel’s records. Its careful lines identify a private patron, payments routed through three intermediaries, and instructions concealed beneath royal-looking authorizations.
Doku Nohara
The palace seal was borrowed, not sovereign.
The depositions confirm the pattern: the vessel was ordered beyond the palace, then masked as royal work before entering its custody. The final authorization names no office, only a cipher.
The Masked Clerk
The cipher appears again in the payment ledger. I could not identify it, but whoever used it expected the palace to obey without asking questions.
Quest Complete
Place the masked clerk under reliable protection