Session Recap
Lady Ysabet Marr received the party at the royal archive after Voss arranged a discreet introduction. She had known Caldus professionally and confirmed that his final weeks were dominated by Queen Seraphine’s sealed correspondence. Ysabet did not share Voss’s certainty that the Guard was compromised, but she agreed that Caldus had become unusually secretive after discovering inconsistencies in the official catalog. Archivist Neme Pell led the party into the restricted stacks and showed them several boxes Caldus had requested repeatedly.
The surviving documents contradicted the public account almost immediately. Seraphine’s own notes referred to three lights separated for safekeeping and to a decision that must never again rest in one pair of hands. Nyra compared the language to the altered prayer beneath the observatory and concluded that division was intentional. Corin found references to Saint Orien as a witness rather than a burial site. Tomas noticed that multiple catalog numbers in the sequence were missing entirely rather than marked destroyed, suggesting records had been removed before the current investigation.
Smoke interrupted the search. Fires started almost simultaneously in three restricted aisles, each containing material Caldus had used. Masked intruders moved through the confusion rather than fleeing immediately. Mira pursued one across a service balcony and onto the archive roof, where the figure dropped a satchel to clear a gap between buildings. Tomas followed another through a map room and found an aqueduct access panel already unlocked from the inside, evidence that the escape had been prepared. Aster abandoned pursuit when clerks became trapped behind a fallen shelf and helped pull them from the burning aisle. Corin treated smoke injuries while Nyra and Pell salvaged whatever fragments they could reach.
The attackers escaped with a folio titled The Division of Morning. The satchel Mira recovered contained black wax, a half-burned list of shelf numbers, and a token stamped with an eclipsed sun. Pell recognized several destroyed shelf numbers as records requested through Chancellor Oren Valec’s office during routine historical reviews. That fact did not prove Valec personally ordered the thefts; the requests could have been made by staff using his authority. Ysabet nevertheless agreed that the pattern was too specific to dismiss.
Among the scorched fragments, Nyra reconstructed references to Ember, Tide, and Radiant lights. Another surviving line stated that the first was entrusted where the sunless saint kept vigil. Ysabet identified Saint Orien as a ruined monastery beyond Brighthollow. The party also learned that records concerning the monastery had been systematically downgraded from royal history to religious miscellany over several generations.
After the fire was contained, Aster questioned whether their presence had caused the attack. Ysabet answered that whoever burned the archive already knew what Caldus had found; the party had merely forced the conspirators to act openly. Voss ordered no arrests because they still lacked a named culprit. The session ended with the party choosing Saint Orien as its next destination, carrying salvaged fragments that proved the Crown had been divided deliberately and that someone was still destroying the evidence.