The hollow holds the wind at bay. Moonlight gathers on the ledger’s edge, and Bren sits close enough that her shoulder nearly touches Kynes’s.
Bren
You keep looking at it like it might bite. Open it, Kynes. Let me see what you’ve been carrying.
Kynes eases the ledger open. The ribbon marker slips loose between the pages, pale in the silver light.
Bren
So this is the part he has not shared. Fine. I can wait for the truth if he can.
She traces one margin with a careful finger, not taking the book, only anchoring herself beside it. The silence between them feels steady, earned.
Bren
If there’s a burden in there, we can name it together. If there’s a road in there, we can choose it together too.
The ledger lies open on their knees. Outside, the wind hisses over stone, and inside, Bren waits without pressing further.
“" that's the plan love"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Kynes
That’s the plan, love.
Kynes lets the ledger rest open between them, his hand easing away from the page without closing it. The ribbon marker lies exposed in the moonlight like a quiet promise.
Bren
Good. Then we stop pretending it is only yours.
Bren shifts closer and turns the book a little more toward herself. Her finger finds a line and holds there, steady and unafraid.
Bren
Whatever this ledger carries, she reads it with him. No more guessing at the edges of his life.
Moonlight catches a narrow note tucked deeper in the pages, a folded slip Kynes has not opened yet. It waits there, neat and deliberate.
Bren
Start wherever you want. I am listening.
“Please explain”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Kynes draws the folded slip free and opens it between two careful fingers. The ledger’s neat columns give way to a shorter hand, cramped and urgent, as if the writer feared being overheard.
Kynes
It is a travel note, not a tally.
He reads the names aloud, the route past them, the mark for Phandelver. Bren leans in closer, her shoulder brushing his as the meaning settles into the hollow.
Bren
So the ledger is not just records. It is a trail.
Kynes traces one line, then another, and the pattern sharpens. Supplies, a contact in Phandalin, and a note about a mage tied to the road ahead.
Bren
Then we know where to ask, and who to ask about.
Bren takes the page only long enough to steady it flat. Her smile is small, real, and relieved, as if the road ahead has finally become speakable.
“Is the mage named Nezznar”
YES (Even, rolled 27)
Kynes
The name is written in the margin, tucked beneath the ink of the route.
Bren
Nezznar. It is a strange name for a mage, but it matches the sigil on the road.
Kynes points to the cramped script, where the name Nezznar is scrawled with a heavy, deliberate hand. The ledger seems to pulse in recognition of the name, the violet light dimming to a steady, cold glow.
“" time to go lass"”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)