The service door narrows to a handspan. Fog curls over the wet cobbles as Slaan pins the captured watcher against the shutter, while Nhal keeps the grey cloth lifted between two fingers.
The Hidden Voice
Kestrel-seven, report. Did the route turn them toward the cooper's lane?
The watcher jerks at the coded name. Behind the door, hurried footsteps retreat deeper into the shop, not toward an exit, but toward another prepared position.
Bren
That is the proof. They are not guarding one road. They are steering us from watcher to watcher.
The grey cloth twitches toward the closing gap, its damp edge pointing along the retreating footsteps. The mark sewn into it matches the strip seized from the watcher, confirming the cloth is a route token, not a decoy.
The Hidden Voice
Seal the lower lane. Send the next pair toward the quay. The Gray Glove wants them moving east before nightfall.
“I do four knocks on the door in a rythmic pattern”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -2)
Kynes's staff lowers out of sight. His knuckles strike the cooper's door four times, measured and deliberate: two, one, one.
The pattern carries through the wet timber. Fog shivers in the gap, and the retreating footsteps stop.
The Hidden Voice
That cadence is not yours. Who taught you the road's knock?
The final knock has cost Kynes quiet. Its report echoes down the lane, drawing a shutter-latch clatter from somewhere behind him.
Nhal
The cloth answers the door, but not the voice. Someone inside is listening for the hand that follows.
The grey cloth pulls east in Nhal's grip. Beyond the door, a bolt slides free, and a narrow line of lamplight cuts across the fog.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the local contact behind the lamplit door
+ New Item Acquired
Grey cloth
“"yellow, you seemed to have lost a watcher or two" I call through the door”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -3)
“"yello, you seemed to have lost a watcher or two" I call through the door”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Kynes
Hello. You seem to have lost a watcher or two. Kynes's voice remains level through the open gap.
The silence inside changes shape. The lamplight widens as someone steps close, no longer hiding behind the door.
Mira Voss
You noticed. Then you are not one of the road's frightened travelers.
The door opens to reveal a woman in a plain cooper's apron, one hand lifted away from the bolt. Her gaze fixes on the grey cloth.
Mira Voss
Mira Voss. I keep the Gray Glove's local handoffs recorded, though I do not wear the glove myself.
Behind her, a ledger lies open beside the lamp. One fresh entry names the next exchange at the Lantern Yard, east of the fish market, before dawn.
Mira Voss
Take the cloth there, and the courier-master will know this lane has failed. Enter, or leave me to close the door.
Quest Complete
Identify the local contact behind the lamplit door
“I drag the watcher inside" your coming with us sparky" to Mira as we walk past" pardon us, your going to answer some questions."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +3)
Kynes seizes the Watcher Below by the collar and hauls him across the threshold. The captive's boots scrape over the wet cobbles, then catch on the cooper's floorboards.
Kynes
You're coming with us, Sparky. Pardon us. You're answering some questions.
Mira Voss
You bring your evidence inside, and still expect answers?
Kynes forces the Watcher Below into a chair beside the ledger. Mira steps aside rather than resist, and the open book remains within reach.
Watcher Below
The Lantern Yard is not the end of the chain. Mira records the hands that receive the cloth.
Mira Voss
He is right. The next name is written in the margin, beneath the fishmongers' tally. Corven Dask collects the token before dawn.
The captive's confession gives the room a sharper shape. Beside Corven Dask's name, Mira's ink marks a back entrance under the Lantern Yard's eastern arcade, and a note warns: two escorts, no questions.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get past Mira Voss
“I cast blind and silence onto the ledger. As slann cast stun on the watcher and Mira " Sorry , precaution." I say " any way, this has what to do with me?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +2)
Kynes's spell settles over the open ledger. Ink blurs beneath a dark veil, and the book's pages fall utterly silent, hiding its names and marks from sight and sound.
Slaan
Sorry. Precaution.
Slaan's stun strikes the Watcher Below. His muscles lock, and he slumps rigidly against the chair, the shadow-magic still binding his wrists.
Kynes
Anyway, what does this have to do with me?
Mira Voss
Because Corven Dask is not collecting for the Gray Glove. He is collecting you.
Mira taps the covered ledger, then points toward the eastern arcade. Her guarded expression tightens as footsteps pass somewhere beyond the shop wall.
Mira Voss
The cloth marks a bearer, not a parcel. Whoever carries it is expected to arrive alive, named, and alone. Your party has already broken two of those conditions.
From outside, a low whistle answers the passing footsteps. Mira looks toward the shutter, then back to Kynes, waiting to see whether he will risk the exchange at Lantern Yard.
“"why is he trying to collect me eh" I ask coldly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Kynes
Why is he trying to collect me, eh? I ask coldly.
Mira studies Kynes through the dim shop, then lowers her hand from the shutter. The footsteps outside continue east, fading beneath the fog.
Mira Voss
Because the cloth is a summons, not a delivery token. Corven believes the bearer carries the missing witness-name.
She turns the covered ledger toward Kynes and taps the eastern arcade entry. Beneath the veil, one fresh line presses against the page as if written from memory.
Mira Voss
He means to bring you alive to the courier-master. Your name would open the chain's sealed records, and Corven would be paid for delivering the key intact.
A second whistle answers from the eastern street. Mira's guarded certainty cracks into urgency as she points toward the rear passage.
Mira Voss
That is his signal. If you go to Lantern Yard, go knowing the exchange is for you. If you stay, Corven will learn the cloth never reached him.
“" tell me more of this stay or go choice" I roll my eyes already board.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -2)
Kynes
Tell me more about this stay-or-go choice.
Kynes rolls his eyes and shifts the staff against the counter, making the question sound less like surrender than impatience.
Mira Voss
Stay, and I can hide the cloth, keep the ledger sealed, and tell Corven you never entered. You keep your freedom, but the Gray Glove learns I helped you, and this shop becomes a place they search.
Mira Voss
Go, and Corven takes you toward the courier-master under the eastern arcade. You might reach the chain's records, but he will bind the meeting to your name before you can walk away.
Mira's voice loses its recorder's distance. She admits the cost plainly: her hesitation has already become reportable, and Corven will know she delayed him.
Mira Voss
I am not asking you to trust me, Kynes. I am asking which danger you can afford to carry. Do you want the truth about the chain, or do you want this door to remain a door?
“I ask Bren, Nhal and Slaan " eh drag her into this or see what kind of trouble we can get out of." Then with a grin to Nhal " you glad you came?" I ask”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Kynes
Bren, Nhal, Slaan, do we drag her into this, or see what kind of trouble we can get out of? And Nhal, you glad you came?
The question passes through the shop, settling the choice among them instead of leaving it on Mira's shoulders. Nhal lowers the grey cloth and looks from it to Kynes.
Bren
We involve Mira, carefully. She knows the chain, and she has already risked herself by delaying Corven. We do not spend that courage casually.
Slaan
Agreed. We keep the cloth with Nhal, keep Mira between us and the Gray Glove, and let no one mistake cooperation for surrender.
Nhal
I am glad I came. I found a road that listens, a cloth that remembers, and people who ask before they pull. That is more than I expected.
Mira Voss
Then you have chosen neither blind flight nor blind trust. I can work with that. The eastern arcade remains open, and I will tell you what Corven expects before you meet him.
Nhal
Stay near me, Kynes. The cloth is yours to claim when you decide, but I will carry it until then.
“" ok Mira, fill me in on what to expect" I say plainly." Try not to leave any thing out."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +0)
Kynes
“All right, Mira. Tell me plainly what to expect from Corven. Leave nothing out.”
Mira Voss
“Corven Dask will arrive from the eastern arcade with two escorts. He will speak as though you have already agreed to go, because the Gray Glove’s chain relies on assumed obedience.”
Mira turns the open ledger toward Kynes and taps three lines of cramped script. The first names the cloth. The second names its bearer. The third records a destination beneath Lantern Yard.
Mira Voss
“He will ask for the grey cloth first, then use its presence to confirm you. Do not give it to him. The escorts are there to block the street, not to negotiate.”
Mira Voss
“Corven carries a brass token stamped with a split circle. If he shows it, he can open the eastern arcade’s inner gate. That gate leads to a counting room where the courier-master’s local records are copied before being sent onward.”
Bren
“So the token identifies the handoff, and the records identify the chain.”
Mira Voss
“Exactly. Corven is not the courier-master. He is the living link who knows where the copied records go. If he reaches the arcade with the cloth still absent, he will understand that I delayed him.”
Outside, a measured whistle answers from the eastern street. Nhal tightens her grip on the grey cloth, while Mira points to a narrow rear stair leading toward the arcade. The choice of approach now rests before Kynes.
“" onward where?" I ask heading to the stair landing.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Kynes
Onward where? I ask, heading to the stair landing.
Kynes crosses the shop without surrendering the cloth or waiting for the street to answer. Mira steps aside, keeping the ledger within her reach.
Mira Voss
The eastern arcade. The stair opens behind its counting room, beneath the lantern hooks. Corven will use the upper street entrance.
Kynes reaches the landing. Below, the narrow stair descends into a covered passage, while a barred side door opens onto the eastern arcade.
Nhal
The cloth stays with me. If Corven wants a bearer, he can face the bearer.
A hard bar drops across the shop's rear door behind them. Mira remains on the shop side, separated from Kynes by the closed passage door, while the landing gives him a clear view of both routes.
The measured whistle cuts off. From beneath the eastern arcade, footsteps stop at the other side of the barred door.
Mira Voss
That is the landing. Corven has reached the inner gate. Choose quickly, Kynes.
Confront Corven Dask
Quest Complete
Get past Mira Voss
New Gift: Mira-Reading Mastery