Portal to Another World

Ettel leads The Lone Wanderer away from the brazier and through the settlement’s inner gate. The four guards remain behind, watching the rain and civilians.

She brings him into a cramped council shelter. Beneath a smoking lantern, a hand-drawn road map lies beside wrapped rations, a waterskin, and travel supplies.

Ettel traces the road east with one finger, then marks a smaller route branching toward the wooded hills. Her voice stays firm, but not unwelcoming.

She rolls the map toward him and sets a small lantern beside the marked road. Outside, the settlement remains calm as rain taps against the canvas.

Ettel gathers the lantern and leads The Lone Wanderer through the eastern gate into steady rain. He follows the marked route, rifle lowered, while she studies the dark road.

The road sinks into mud between soaked trees. The Lone Wanderer finds broken wheel ruts leaving the route, then follows crushed grass and a snapped branch downhill toward the stream.

The trail ends behind a screen of alder trees. The missing handcart stands intact beside the stream, one wheel sunk deep in mud, its covered supplies still secured beneath the canvas.

Ettel checks the bindings and braces the sunken wheel while The Lone Wanderer helps free the handcart from the mud. Together they turn it back toward the settlement.

Ettel points to shallow boot marks beside the wheel ruts. The prints turn uphill toward a line of dark pines, while the cart's bindings remain undisturbed.

Her expression tightens. She gives him the answer plainly, but the information has changed the escort plan and placed his presence inside the settlement's security calculations.

Ettel grips the handcart's handle and starts uphill toward the road. The thieves' answer is settled, but the return now carries the weight of an owed report.

Ettel stops beside the handcart and looks toward the pine-covered hillside. Her grip tightens on the handle, but her voice remains measured rather than vengeful.

She shifts the lantern toward the uphill prints and gestures for the Lone Wanderer to take the opposite side of the cart. The return becomes an immediate pursuit.

Ettel leads the handcart beneath the pines, following the thieves' shallow prints as rain softens the road behind them. The dark hillside offers a clear direction.

The Lone Wanderer studies the rain-softened prints beneath the pines, then leaves the handcart with Ettel and follows the trail uphill through fern and wet needles.

The tracks pass a split boulder and end at a shallow rock shelter. Two figures crouch beside a dead fire, their stolen lookout position exposed from the slope below.

The two road thieves rise slowly from the shelter. One drops a short club into the mud, while the other lifts both hands and steps clear of the rocks.

Ettel binds their wrists with cord and retrieves the dropped club. With the thieves secured alive, she signals the Lone Wanderer back toward the handcart and settlement.

The Lone Wanderer leaves pine-covered hillside beneath the pines behind and arrives at the settlement.

The settlement’s gate opens onto rain-darkened mud and firelit shelters. Four guards turn as Ettel brings the handcart through, its secured provisions intact and the bound thieves walking behind her.

The guards close around the handcart without drawing weapons. Nearby residents retreat beneath awnings, leaving a clear lane from the gate to the council shelter.

Ettel keeps the thieves together beside the shelter post and checks each binding. The settlement’s bell remains silent, while the cart’s marked crates are unloaded under cover.

A clerk is summoned from the largest shelter, carrying a wax tablet and a hooded lamp. The first written account begins as rain drums against the canvas.

The Lone Wanderer enters the council shelter beside Ettel. A narrow bench faces the handcart’s two bound thieves, the right-hand thief a stocky middle-aged man with a square stubbled face, thinning brown hair, a patched brown jacket, and worn work boots, the left-hand thief a wiry young adult man with a narrow face, cropped dark hair, a patched gray coat, and mud-stained trousers, while the clerk, a young woman with a slim build, brown skin, tightly braided black hair, and a patched green coat beneath her hood sets her wax tablet beneath the hooded lamp.

As he steps over the shelter’s wet threshold, his boot slips on mud. He catches the bench instead of falling, but strikes his knee hard enough to leave it aching.

The Lone Wanderer takes the offered place despite the bruised knee. The clerk records the time, the road, the wheel ruts, and the thieves’ position beneath the pine-covered slope.

The question settles over the shelter. The left-hand road thief glances at his companion, while Ettel watches both men and the clerk’s stylus pauses above the wax.

The clerk presses the confession into wax. Ettel’s expression hardens as the answer turns a local theft into paid reconnaissance against the settlement’s supply lines.

The cost becomes clear: Ettel records him as a questioning witness rather than a neutral observer. The thieves have named L'Sara, and the hearing now carries her possible interest in the settlement.

The Lone Wanderer stays silent beneath the hooded lamp, letting the confession stand. His jaw tightens, and the pause stretches long enough for the clerk to notice his hesitation.

The clerk cuts the names into wax. The Lone Wanderer keeps his attention fixed on the thieves, though the effort leaves his thoughts briefly slow and his silence conspicuously strained.

Ettel ends the hearing and leaves the thieves secured with the guards. The Lone Wanderer follows her beyond the eastern gate, carrying the lantern into steady rain.

The Lone Wanderer studies the hillside trail with Ettel. Rain has blurred the prisoners’ prints, but broken fern stems, a snapped cord, and fresh heel marks reveal a second route east.

He leads Ettel through the pines without losing the trail. The marks descend toward an old waystone, where a narrow campfire burns behind a screen of rocks.

L'Sara steps into the firelight beside the waystone, two short swords and paired hand crossbows visible beneath her gear. Ettel raises one hand, holding the Lone Wanderer back from a sudden exchange.

L'Sara's gaze flicks from the raised hand crossbows to Ettel, then back to the Lone Wanderer. She answers without retreating from the firelight.

Ettel keeps her arm extended, but her attention sharpens at the explanation. The rain patters on the stones while the campfire gutters between them.

L'Sara lowers one hand crossbow toward the mud while keeping the other trained past Ettel. She steps backward, placing the waystone between herself and the settlement leader.

Rain hisses across the fire, sending a sheet of steam between them. L'Sara uses the moment to slip sideways toward the dark pines, her crossbows never leaving the two travelers.

L'Sara pauses at the edge of the firelight, framed by wet branches and black trunks. She does not raise her weapons higher, but neither does she lower them or turn back.

The Lone Wanderer reaches for his rifle but is too slow to raise it.

The sudden motion draws L'Sara's attention. Her nearer hand crossbow snaps toward him, while Ettel shifts between them and the rain-slick waystone.

The bolt strikes the mud beside Ettel's boot, spraying dark water. Ettel recoils just far enough for L'Sara to break from the firelight toward the pines.

L'Sara disappears between the wet trunks, leaving one crossbow bolt buried in the mud and the waystone fire guttering behind her. Ettel keeps her eyes on the escape route.

The Lone Wanderer breaks after L'Sara into the pines. Wet branches whip his face as he closes the distance, boots driving through mud and needles.

He catches her from behind and drives both of them down beside a slick root. His shoulder strikes the ground hard, leaving his arm numb, but L'Sara is pinned beneath him.

L'Sara twists sharply, trying to throw him clear without surrendering either weapon. The Lone Wanderer keeps her shoulders against the mud, though his bruised arm trembles under the strain.

Ettel arrives through the rain and kicks one crossbow beyond reach, then secures L'Sara's wrists while the Lone Wanderer maintains the tackle. The escape is ended, but his shoulder throbs with every breath.

With L'Sara's wrists secured, The Lone Wanderer releases his hold and reaches into his battered gear with his uninjured hand. The bruised shoulder still throbs beneath his suit.

He presses the stimpak against his arm and triggers it. Cool medicinal pressure spreads through his body as the injector empties.

The ache in his shoulder loosens, the trembling fades, and strength returns to the arm that struck the ground. Rain continues tapping through the pine branches.

Ettel keeps L'Sara's secured wrists in hand while the dark elf remains on her knees in the mud. The crossbows lie beyond reach, and the escape route is empty.

The stimpak instantly heals The Lone Wanderer of all injuries.

The Lone Wanderer leaves the pines behind and arrives at the settlement.

The settlement gate opens through rain-darkened mud as The Lone Wanderer carries L'Sara over his shoulder. Ettel walks beside him, one hand on the prisoner's secured wrists.

Four guards close the gate behind them. Firelight catches on the blue Vault-Tec suit, wet pine needles, and the dark elf's crossed boots as nearby residents fall silent.

He carries her beneath the council awning without stumbling. The movement exposes a folded scrap tucked inside her coat, marked with the same old waystone symbol from the pine trail.

The Lone Wanderer takes the offered place beneath the council awning and watches the clerk arrange the folded note, L'Sara's weapons, and the written accounts before the council.

By the lantern's angle, the Lone Wanderer notices the note's creases match repeated folding, while the ink has run only along the exposed edge. It was carried in the rain, not written beside the fire.

The clerk presses the finding into wax: L'Sara is held for paid reconnaissance and attempted interference, with the attack and peaceful surrender weighed separately. The guards remain outside the shelter.

The clerk sets aside the wax tablet and turns toward The Lone Wanderer, but he offers no account. Ettel notices his silence and does not press him.

L'Sara remains seated with her wrists secured before her. Outside the awning, the guards hold the crowd back while rainwater threads beneath the benches.

Ettel gathers the written accounts and faces the shelter entrance. Beyond the rain, a runner appears at the gate, carrying a sealed message marked with Honorhold's crest.