The route-record lifts from the sealed strongbox and projects a blue path through a newly opened arch toward the archive. Oju remains in the hearing with Cael, while Ilyra and the three bound accusers stay behind beneath their witness-lines.
The path crosses the archive threshold, then ends in a clean absence. No torn script or broken sigil surrounds the gap; the missing final segment was removed with deliberate precision.
Ilyra
That omission was made, not suffered. Someone concealed the final route-mark after the record was written, and meant the archive to appear complete.
Cael
Then the route cannot support judgment yet. The missing mark must be recovered through preserved testimony, not inferred from the path around it.
The blue projection narrows around the absent segment. Beyond the arch, shelves of luminous pages turn without hands, while the strongbox remains sealed beneath the judgment dais.
Named Accuser 3
The final mark may name who redirected the route. If so, our testimony about concealed control must be heard beside it, not after it.
Cael raises his sealed hand, holding the arch open but preventing the record from advancing. The court waits in suspended blue light, leaving Oju the next lawful choice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the missing final route-mark
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who removed the final route-mark
“Can the archive reveal who deliberately removed the final route-mark?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 2)
The archive answers first. A concealed page unfolds from the missing route-mark and names the hand named in the archive, a young adult woman with a slender build, warm brown skin, a narrow face, dark braided hair, and a blue-gray archivist's robe, her ink-stained fingers visible as the hand that removed it, preserving the final segment beneath her erasure-sign.
Ilyra
Selka removed the mark after the route was recorded. She meant to hide the passage that carried the record toward the court.
The recovered segment does more than identify Selka. It reveals a second route branching beneath her alteration, leading to a sealed witness alcove untouched by the archive’s erasures.
Cael
The alcove contains the original route-mark. Its testimony can establish when Selka removed the final segment, and who received the altered record afterward.
A narrow blue passage opens beside the arch without waiting for a new claim. The recovered route copies itself into three witness-lines, making the evidence available even if the alcove later seals.
Named Accuser 3
Then the archive has given us both the remover and the untouched proof. Selka’s concealment can be judged without relying on inference.
The absent segment locks into the route-record. Cael keeps the arch open, while the new witness-lines stand ready to expose the altered record’s recipient and the precise moment of its removal.
“Did Selka give the altered record to Veyr?”
YES, AND MORE (VeryLikely, rolled 3)
The sealed witness alcove opens beneath the recovered route. Its untouched mark shows Selka passing the altered record directly to the unseen employer, then receiving his acknowledgment in the archive’s own script.
Cael
Confirmed. Selka delivered the altered record to Veyr after removing the final route-mark. His acknowledgment proves he knew the record was falsified before he used it.
A second inscription unfolds beneath the receipt. Veyr’s acknowledgment carries a tracing seal that identifies every hand the altered record crossed, including the archive’s hidden courier path.
Ilyra
The tracing seal is an advantage. It does not merely expose Veyr’s knowledge; it names the route by which his influence reached the other chambers.
The tracing seal copies itself into Oju’s preserved record, placing the courier path under his lawful witness. No further claim is needed to keep the route visible to the court.
Named Accuser 3
Then Selka’s concealment and Veyr’s receipt stand together. The altered record cannot be treated as an innocent error, and the route to his other contacts is open.
“I trace the courier path for the missing mark”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Oju follows the tracing seal through the archive’s hidden courier path. Reads Enchanted Signals separates the true route from copied decoys, carrying the blue line beneath three erased entries.
The path leads from Selka’s altered record to a narrow service alcove, then onward to Veyr’s receiving mark. Behind a false layer of script, Oju finds the missing route-mark intact.
Oju
The mark was hidden after delivery, not removed before it.
Reads Enchanted Signals locks the recovered mark into Oju’s preserved record. It names Selka as the remover, Veyr as the recipient, and shows the concealed courier path crossing two witness seals.
Cael
The trace is complete. The missing mark proves the altered record passed through Selka’s hands to Veyr, and the hidden route was deliberately maintained between them.
The achievement carries a narrow cost: tracing consumed the archive’s last unbroken sequence, so the exact interval between Selka’s alteration and Veyr’s receipt remains uncertain. The route itself is fixed and cannot be erased.
Quest Complete
Recover the missing final route-mark
Quest Complete
Identify who removed the final route-mark