A cramped stair behind the infirmary stores descends into a stone archive. Maelin Orra enters with an oilcloth-wrapped ledger, while Seris studies mineral-stained shelves crowded with broken tablets and dust.
Maelin Orra
This is the oldest water ledger Hearthmere kept. Hadrik Voss’s entry should explain the side channel, unless the missing pages conceal more than a warning.
She unwraps the ledger beneath a low iron lamp. Its leather is swollen with age, and several leaves have been cleanly cut from the binding, leaving pale threads exposed.
Seris
These marks match the keeper-sign above the intake. Someone brought mineral water here recently, and not through the ordinary channels.
Beneath the locked cabinet, a fresh blue trickle slips between the floorstones. It gathers in a thin line, brightening whenever the ledger’s clasp shifts.
Maelin Orra
The lock is newer than the shelves. I have no key, and I will not force it until we know what the ward considers trespass.
Seris
Then we begin with Hadrik’s surviving entry. Davis, the archive is waiting for your reading before either of us touches that cabinet.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish reliable guidance for the lower gate
“I look at the ledger. Wondering if I can use magic to read what was taken out. I reach out and try to find a clear picture of the pages in my mind. My desire to learn clear.”
SUCCESS (Great Magic, rolled +2)
Davis rests his fingers above the ledger’s cut binding and reaches through its preserved traces. The iron lamp dims as the missing pages take shape in his mind.
Davis of Carmathen
The pages were removed carefully, but the ledger remembers their pressure and ink.
A clear image forms: Hadrik Voss writing beside the eastern intake, his keeper-sign beneath a warning about water that listens through stone. The next page shows the sealed side channel opened during a flood.
The vision turns to the missing leaves themselves. They were cut away after Hadrik recorded a second presence below the lower gate, one that answered human voices by repeating them from the dark.
Maelin Orra
You have found something. Tell me what the ledger could not keep.
The image settles into precise lines: Hadrik ordered the gate watched by a keeper, a healer, and a witness, because the presence below could imitate any voice that answered it.
Seris
Then the missing pages were not merely a warning about flooding. They concealed a living intelligence beneath the spring.
“"Sounds like the heir curse. Except this one is, nice? Unless you do something to disturb it?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Davis of Carmathen
It sounds like the old heir curse. Except this presence is kind, unless someone disturbs it.
Davis follows the ledger’s preserved impressions without forcing them, comparing the repeating voice to Hadrik’s warning and the orderly water-signs beneath the gate. The pattern holds together cleanly.
Maelin Orra
That is possible, but it is not the same curse. Hadrik described a presence with rules, not hunger. Disturbance may be the danger.
Seris
The ward has shown no hostility. It records purpose, answers careful questions, and leaves the spring stronger than it found it.
The blue trickle pauses beneath the floorstones, as though listening. When no hand reaches for the locked cabinet, it resumes its quiet path toward the lower gate.
Maelin Orra
Then we treat it as a guarded custodian until proven otherwise. We will speak plainly, touch nothing without consent, and keep the three witnesses together.
Seris
A harmless presence can still become dangerous when people mistake patience for permission.
Establish peaceful contact with the guarded custodian
Quest Complete
Establish reliable guidance for the lower gate
Skill Upgrade: Magic Great→Superb