The crowd tightens as Sareth turns to slip between the market stalls. Beneath the cobbles, the keeper-road gives a steady violet throb, as if it feels the lie before it is spoken.
Kynes
If he vanishes, the road stays bendable.
Kynes cuts across the opening path, staff low, forcing Sareth back into the brightest part of the square. Heads turn. Bren and Mara angle with him, while Vetta watches the seam underfoot like it might answer a name.
Sareth
You would make a show of it, then. Fine. Name me, and let the road hear it.
Mara
The road already hears it. Honest witness keeps it true.
Vetta
And lies bend it. That is what he is trying to hide.
Sareth lifts his black-wrapped hand, and the violet seam flares hard enough for the crowd to see. The route beyond the square steadies instead of warping, waiting on Kynes's answer and the public truth.
✓ Quest Accepted
Force Sareth to speak before the crowd
“"I don't want to force you, but why are you doing what your doing"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -3)
Kynes
I do not want to force you. Why are you doing this?
Sareth
Because someone must say what the road is being used for, and you keep dragging the truth into daylight.
Sareth
I read the lines, I guard the claim, and I know what happens when the wrong hands keep a witness quiet.
Bren
He is talking because he has to, not because he wants to.
Mara
Then say it plainly, Sareth. Who is bending the keeper-road?
Sareth
Rell's line reaches farther than this square. I am trying to keep it from swallowing every honest mark.
The words land in the open square. A few faces turn, and the violet seam holds steady under witness, but Kynes's push draws blood from the inside edge of his shadow-hand.
“I mentally call one of the crows. To me”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Kynes lets the square breathe for a beat, then reaches inward and calls the crow with a clean, silent pull.
The shadow-crow snaps from the seam and lands on his staff, wings folding tight as if it has been waiting for the summons all along.
Sareth
That answers more plainly than words.
A few faces in the crowd tilt toward the bird, then back to Sareth, as the violet route holds steady under their gaze.
Bren
He called it to him. Now speak while everyone can hear you.
Mara
The road is listening. Do not make it wait.
Sareth’s black-wrapped hand tightens once, and the deeper branch beneath the cobbles gives a faint visible throb.
“Repeat everything you told me to my friend here." I tell sareth”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Kynes
Repeat everything you told Bren.
Sareth swallows, then turns his face toward the watching square instead of away from it.
Sareth
The road is being used, and Rell’s line reaches farther than this square. It listens through the claim-sites, through keepers, through anyone who lets it read them.
The violet seam stays bright and level beneath the cobbles, as if the truth itself is holding it open.
Bren
Good. Keep going. Say it where everyone can hear it.
Mara
If he speaks plainly, the road keeps its witness.
Sareth
I did not make the tail, I only learned where it runs. The hand I wear is part of that lesson, and it is not the whole truth.
A few onlookers lean in, and the deeper branch under the cobbles gives a small visible throb, then settles as Sareth stays put and keeps speaking.
Quest Complete
Force Sareth to speak before the crowd
New Gift: Public-Speaker's Arcane Insight
“I ask the crow if the flock heard what sareth said”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +2)
Kynes
Kynes tips his staff toward the hovering crow and asks, low, whether the flock heard what Sareth just said.
The shadow-crow cocks its head, then gives a single rough chirr, as if passing the question inward.
Shadow-Crow
Heard it. The line in the stones carries it, and the flock carries the line.
A second soft rustle answers from beyond the square, not a threat, just a settling of unseen wings.
Sareth
Then the flock knows I am not lying whole. Good. It should know the break in me is not the same as the road.
Bren
That sounds like a man trying to be clear for once.
Mara
It sounds like someone who learned the road keeps more than one witness.
Sareth’s black-wrapped hand loosens a little, and the violet seam beneath the cobbles steadies into a clean, listening line.
“I tell the crow, have the flock find Rell”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Kynes
Have the flock find Rell.
Shadow-Crow
It goes inward. Wings will search the routes, and the route will remember where he bends.
The crow gives the order a low, ragged answer. Somewhere above the square, unseen wings stir in a widening circle.
Sareth
Then it is done. If Rell is in the roads, the flock will feel the wrong shape first.
The violet seam under the cobbles tightens, then turns brighter, as if the witness itself has taken a direction.
Mara
That is a clean use of the flock.
From the deeper branch beneath the square, a single dark pulse answers, not from the crowd, but from farther down the hidden way.
Shadow-Crow
There. The line twitches where he is trying to be elsewhere.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep Sareth speaking before the crowd
“" do you have anything else to share" I ask sareth”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Kynes
Do you have anything else to share?
Sareth
Only this, Rell is not just in the roads, he uses them to listen. If the line bends wrong, it is because he is near enough to press it.
Sareth
And the hand he wraps is not for show. It hurts when the road answers him.
Bren
That is useful, and ugly. Keep going, if there is more.
Mara
Tell us the shape of his habit, not just his name.
Sareth
He leaves afterimages in the claim-lines, like a thumbprint in wax. If you know where to look, you can follow what he touches before he hides it.
The square stays hushed around them. Kynes gets the answer, but the effort costs him a sharp tug in the shadow-hand, as if something deeper in the route has noticed the attention.
Quest Complete
Keep Sareth speaking before the crowd