Kynes steps from the magistrate's office into the quay light, ledger in hand. Jorren Pell freezes beside the cargo nets, then forces himself back to work. The dock workers slow, watching the mage and the bundle of records like both are dangerous.
Kynes
The ledger is heavier than paper should be.
Kynes angles toward Jorren as if this is only fraud, names, and seals. The moment he crosses the wet stones, the air answers. Red light leaks through the planks under the quay, thin as a wound.
Jorren Pell
Keep back. I have done nothing wrong.
The ledger in Kynes's grip shudders hard enough to rattle its clasp. Ink crawls up the page by itself, spelling the same name twice, then a third time. Across the berth, the ship's mooring posts creak, and a hidden seam of red script wakes in the timber.
Bren
Kynes, that is not paper work. It is answering you.
Jorren backs toward the gangway as the quay boards pulse beneath him. The false accounting has led Kynes straight to the mechanism beneath the dock, and now it is opening.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confirm the corruption through Jorren Pell
“Kynes confronts Jorren Pell with the accounting records and demands he explain his role in the fraudulent shipments, who paid him, and who else participated.”
SUCCESS (Good Intimidation, rolled -2)
Kynes stops Jorren with the ledger held level, and the dockworker flinches as if the book can bite. Bren stays at Kynes's shoulder, watching the man and the planks beneath him.
Kynes
Explain the shipments. Who paid you, who else was in it, and why does your name keep surfacing in the ledgers?
Jorren Pell
I hauled crates, I copied marks, that is all. I do not know the whole chain. The magistrate's seal came first, then the broker's token, then orders by quiet hand.
He blurts it out too fast, and the ledger in Kynes's grip answers with a hot twitch of red under the cover. A drop of seawater sizzles on the rim where the pages are sweating ink.
Jorren Pell
Jorren Pell keeps his gaze on the boards. At the quay, I pass names to Clerk Vance's men, and once, only once, to the broker at the eastern berth near the crane house. I am not the head of it.
Bren
Then say who is.
Jorren Pell
I cannot name more without losing my place. Please. I have given you enough to hang me.
The confession lands, but the cost is immediate, Jorren's hands shake so badly he tears his own tally slip, and the ledger's red script bleeds brighter in Kynes's grasp. From under the quay planks, the hidden glow keeps pulsing like it heard everything.
Quest Complete
Confirm the corruption through Jorren Pell