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