The eastern turn descends beyond the broken crescent, where scrub grips unstable shale. Seren leads only by a few paces, while Tarin remains below beside the basin.
Pale stones fade behind them. Beneath newer scratches, Hadrik’s angular trail signs emerge along the shale, deliberate and partly concealed beneath loose dust.
Seren Vale
There. Hadrik’s hand is underneath these marks. He expected someone to read past the surface.
Seren crouches near a broken thorn and brushes grit aside. A fresh gray stitch appears beside the older sign, sharply cut and still bright against the stone.
Seren Vale
That warning is recent. Grey Gloves placed it after the old trail was made. It says the descent is watched, not safe.
The path bends toward a narrow ravine hidden from the standing stones. Shale slides softly below, revealing recent passage but no clear return tracks.
Seren Vale
If Hadrik fled, he would mark the safest ground. If he guided someone onward, he would leave the warning here. I need to know which.
“I ask Seren to explain the Grey Gloves’ warning”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Mara
Explain the Grey Gloves’ warning.
Seren studies the bright gray stitch, then clears more dust from the angular trail sign. Shale shifts softly beneath her boots, but the marked ground holds.
Seren Vale
It means Grey Gloves watched this descent after Hadrik marked it. They had eyes nearby, but the warning does not say they claimed the path.
Seren Vale
The lower route was under observation, likely to catch anyone following Hadrik or anyone using his hidden crossing. Watched, not safe, means expect witnesses, not a ward.
She traces the stitch without touching it, distinguishing the newer gray cut from Hadrik’s older marks. No active magic answers her gesture.
Seren Vale
Hadrik wanted the warning read by someone who knew his hand. He was telling us the descent remained usable, but no longer private.
Beyond the warning, the narrow ravine descends through unstable shale. Recent passage darkens the dust, and the route remains open beneath the concealed signs.
Quest Complete
Identify Hadrik Voss’s hidden trail
New Gift: Unerring Source Tracing