Before sunset, Kynes and Bren reach the baker’s side entrance with balanced provisions. The sealed register and ledger remain at the Hall, entrusted to Rowan and the others.
Beyond the door, Iven Marr, a lean middle-aged man with tired brown eyes, thinning black hair, and a gray waistcoat, has moved the chairs into a tight cluster. The street-facing door is barred.
Bren
That is not the room described in the note. Someone changed the arrangement after it was sent.
Iven Marr
Yes. I received the original instructions, then found the chairs displaced and the street door barred. No spell, no hidden mechanism.
Iven keeps both hands visible and gestures toward a small side table. A single cup, an empty chair, and a smear of flour mark the altered room.
Iven Marr
A paid messenger brought the change. Young woman, blue traveling coat, no name given. She said the meeting required privacy and left before I could question her.
Bren
The woman Jessa described. Then someone knew the letter had arrived before we came. Iven, tell us exactly who hired that messenger.
“I inspect the room for a watcher or second exit, " Iven, help me out. I'm having a good day. Who do you think hired the blue coat messenger eh?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +0)
Kynes
I inspect the room for a watcher or another exit. Iven, help me out. I am having a good day. Who do you think hired the blue-coat messenger?
Kynes circles the clustered chairs, checking the barred street door, the flour-marked floor, the shutter seams, and the narrow pantry passage behind the side table. No watcher hides within, and the pantry opens onto a service yard.
Iven Marr
The room is clear, and that passage is the only second exit. As for the messenger, I would wager the blue-coated woman hired herself, or someone who knew she could not resist a paid errand.
Bren examines the service yard through the pantry opening. A heel mark cuts through the flour near the threshold, fresh enough to show the messenger paused there before leaving.
Iven Marr
She carried two silver pieces and a sealed instruction bearing no crest. The money came from a tall man with a red scarf, unless he lied about being the employer.
Bren
Jessa's three searchers, then. The room is clear, but their interest is not. We have a clean exit and a name to test.
Outside, footsteps pass the bakery and continue toward the market. Iven points out the red-scarfed man's likely route, while the unbarred service yard gives Kynes and Bren a private way out.
“I give Iven a long piercing stare. " Why would someone hire themselves Iven, that makes almost no sense."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +3)
Kynes fixes Iven with a long, piercing stare. The baker’s room seems to tighten around the silence, while Bren watches the innkeeper’s face for any sign of evasion.
Kynes
Why would someone hire themselves, Iven? That makes almost no sense.
Iven Marr
It does not. I spoke poorly. The blue-coated woman was paid by the man in the red scarf, and she wanted me to believe she acted alone.
Iven’s shoulders lower beneath Kynes’s scrutiny. He points toward the service yard, then toward the market lane beyond the bakery.
Iven Marr
The red-scarfed man waited by the cooper’s shed while she delivered the instruction. He left east afterward, toward the old ferry path. I saw the place where he changed coats.
Iven Marr
There is more. He left a scrap of red wool caught on the shed’s broken latch. I kept it, thinking it might matter.
Iven retrieves the red wool from beneath the side table and offers it over. Bren accepts it carefully, gaining a tangible trail without disturbing the room’s other evidence.
✓ Quest Accepted
Leave the altered meeting safely
+ New Item Acquired
Red wool scrap
“" see love, growth. No one died yet." I inspect the red wool then I leave through the service yard.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
Kynes examines the red wool between his fingers, checking its weave, dye, loose fibers, and the faint scent of road dust clinging to it.
Kynes
The wool is cut from a fine traveling cloak, recently torn, and carries no spell or hidden mark.
Bren
A useful thread, literally. We can compare it with the man’s changed coat if we find him, but we do not need to chase blindly.
Bren wraps the wool in a scrap of clean cloth and places it among their ordinary evidence. Iven steps aside, leaving the pantry passage and service yard unobstructed.
Iven Marr
The yard opens behind the bakery. Follow the wall east, and you will reach the lane without crossing the market.
Kynes and Bren leave through the service yard. They pass stacked flour sacks, a rain barrel, and a low gate, emerging into the quieter lane beyond the bakery.
Bren
There. We have the clue, a clean exit, and no one hurt. Let us keep it that way while we decide whether the red scarf deserves our attention.
Determine who arranged the altered meeting
Quest Complete
Leave the altered meeting safely