The magistrate’s office is in ruin, drawers spilled, papers trampled, the red lamp shattered into dark glass. Kynes stands at the threshold with Bren at his shoulder as the iron gate rattles behind them.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Hold. If you want to avoid the rope, we speak first.
Kaelen steps from the debris, dust on his cloak, and raises a crest-stamped document that matches Kynes’s seal mark. His eyes flick once to the broken lamp, then back to Kynes.
Inquisitor Kaelen
The counting house fire was not the work of one man. I have a thread, and you have one too. We can compare them, or let the magistrate call you outlaw.
Kynes
The seal matches. He knows more than he should.
Bren shifts closer, guarding Kynes’s flank while loose pages slide underfoot. Somewhere in the corridor, boots pause, listening.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Give me your scrap, and I give you the name behind the lattice. Refuse, and they pin the blaze on you alone.
Kaelen holds out the document between them, a tense offer hanging over the wrecked room like a blade. The lead is clear now, either Kynes trades proof here, or the magistrate’s net closes around him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Kaelen's thread to the hidden name
✓ Quest Accepted
Avoid being declared outlaw
“" here's you go, go ahead and compare notes" I saw in a bored tone”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Kynes
Kynes gives the scrap over, flat and bored, and tells Kaelen to compare notes.
Kaelen takes it without triumph. His thumb traces the crest, then he flips the document beside Kynes’s scrap and scans both in silence.
Inquisitor Kaelen
This mark is not magistrate work alone. It is a relay, passed hand to hand. Someone is laundering the town’s records through fear.
Inquisitor Kaelen
And you are not the quarry they want. You are the blade they are hoping to point.
Bren
She watches Kaelen’s face, then the corridor, then Kynes, ready for a lie.
Inquisitor Kaelen
The outlaw charge is convenient, but it is not the truth. If I name the wrong man, I lose my office. If I name the right one, I lose my friends.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Help me break the chain, and I will put my seal against the magistrate’s. Refuse, and they will make your fire the whole story.
“"Are you a just man inquisitor?" I ask”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Kynes
Are you a just man, Inquisitor?
Kaelen looks up from the papers. For a moment, the office goes still around the overturned desks and red glass.
Inquisitor Kaelen
I try to be. It is a sharper question than lawful, and a harder one.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Justice means I do not let a house, a badge, or a frightened witness decide the truth for me.
Inquisitor Kaelen
It also means I can afford to be hated for the right name, if I have the right name.
Bren
He answers like a man choosing the cleanest blade, not the safest one.
Kaelen sets both documents flat between them, finger resting on the matching crest as if pinning a wound closed.
Inquisitor Kaelen
If you are asking whether I will sell you out to save my standing, no. If you are asking whether I will use you to reach the rot, yes.
Quest Complete
Avoid being declared outlaw
New Gift: Outlaw-Evasion Arcane Insight
“" sick your dogs on me to find the truth...You'll hunt me. You'll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that's what needs to happen. Because sometimes truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded." I say planly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Kynes
Set the dogs on me, then. Hunt me in the open, and let the truth survive the noise.
Kaelen’s mouth twitches once, not quite a smile. He draws a slow breath and folds one hand over the crest-stamped scrap, as if weighing your words against a heavier law.
Inquisitor Kaelen
You ask for a public condemnation because you think shame will force the rot to show its face. That is not foolish.
Inquisitor Kaelen
It is also dangerous, which is usually how real work begins.
Inquisitor Kaelen
I will put my seal to a hunt order. Not for your capture. For the men who are feeding this district from beneath it.
Bren
That sounds cleaner than it is, but cleaner is still welcome.
Kaelen slides the documents toward himself, then turns one page so Kynes can see a copied name near the margin, circled in fresh ink. The shattered red lamp glass catches the light like a scatter of dried embers.
Inquisitor Kaelen
If I name you a suspect, the district will move. If I name you bait, the guilty will panic. I want the panic.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Walk with me to the records hall, Kynes. Let them see me choose you in daylight.
✓ Quest Accepted
Go with Kaelen to the records hall
“I follow him to the records hall.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Kynes steps around the desk and falls into Kaelen’s line of travel, staff in hand, scrap tucked away. Bren moves with him, keeping her shoulder just behind his. Kaelen does not waste the moment.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Good. Then we do this in daylight, where witnesses can hear the order.
He gathers the documents, tucks the circled name to the top, and strides for the door. The scattered red glass on the floor flashes once under his boot.
Kynes goes with him. The office gives way to the corridor, and the public hall opens ahead, cold and watched.
Bren
Stay close. If this turns, it turns fast.
Kaelen lifts the hunt order for the corridor guards to see, already making the truce visible to anyone looking. Behind them, the ransacked office shrinks out of frame, with the crest-stamped scrap and loose papers left behind.
Inquisitor Kaelen
Records hall. Let them see who I lead there.
Quest Complete
Go with Kaelen to the records hall