Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Helmar asked Tharic for the ring the following morning.

He did not demand it before the family guards or reach for the pouch beneath his nephew’s shirt. He invited Tharic into a private archive room where portraits of earlier Ruskells covered one stone wall and locked record cabinets covered the other.

Rod attended because Tharic requested it. Helmar’s steward remained near the door.

"The attacks will continue while you carry it." Helmar said. "The first crew failed. The second failed. Whoever wants the ring has already proven that hiring another group costs less than surrendering the claim behind it."

Tharic placed both hands on the archive table. "We still do not know what claim that is."

"Then let the family investigate while the ring remains somewhere assassins cannot reach. I don’t want to see my nephew die over a piece of jewelry."

Helmar indicated the cabinets around them. The stronghold possessed vaults beneath the central tower, guards bound to the Ruskell household, and records that did not travel beyond the walls. He proposed placing the ring in his custody as head of the family until they determined why it mattered.

"No road crew can take it from me if it is not on the road." Helmar said. "No distant branch can claim you concealed it for your own inheritance. You surrender the object to the family, and this bloodshed among loses its purpose."

The appeal reached the part of Tharic the assassins had not.

He had spent a week treating the ring as cargo someone intended to steal.

"I will give it to you tomorrow after dinner," Tharic said. "I want one day to copy my father’s records and write the transfer in my own ledger."

Helmar accepted without pressure.

"Bring it to the family chamber at sunset tomorrow. We will witness the custody properly."

Rod and Tharic returned to the guest wing.

Lana, Dirk, Dain, and Nessa listened while Tharic explained the decision. The ring lay on the table inside its leather pouch. He removed it only long enough for everyone to see the worn family crest and dark green stone.

"It belongs to you." Rod said. "Our contract is to keep you alive, not make your family decisions."

"Do you think I am wrong?" Tharic asked.

Rod considered the question before answering. "I think two groups of assassins wanted it intact. Giving it away does not make that interest disappear. Your uncle has walls and guards. If the ring stays here, you should leave before anyone decides you remain part of the claim."

Dain agreed. "Transfer it in front of witnesses. Keep a copy of every record."

Nessa asked whether Helmar had offered protection after Tharic departed. He had. Ruskell guards would escort him back to Highforge once the archive review ended.

Dirk examined the ring without touching it. "Did your father ever say why it passed to you instead of remaining in the stronghold?"

"Only that his father gave it to him, and that the eldest available member of our branch carried it. I thought it was a mark of descent. Nothing more."

That was all any of them knew.

Tharic spent the afternoon in the archive copying family records. Rod’s party remained nearby without hovering over him. Dirk walked the outer walls with a Ruskell guard. Dain visited the stables and confirmed their mounts had recovered from the journey. Nessa replaced the remedies used in the pass. Lana studied a spell diagram beside the guest-room window while Midnight explored.

The stronghold offered the cat more interesting things than sitting in a boring room.

Service gaps passed behind storage cabinets. Warm shafts rose from the kitchens into upper floors carrying tasty smells. Narrow ledges connected windows overlooking the courtyard. Midnight moved through them without forcing a latch or entering any sealed room.

Near sunset, he followed two familiar voices toward Helmar’s private office.

Lana felt the shift through Shared Senses.

She had allowed the connection to remain light while Midnight wandered. Images came as impressions rather than replacing her own view. A stone rail. The scent of roasting meat from below. Boots crossing the gallery.

Then Helmar spoke Tharic’s name.

Lana set down her spell diagram and opened the connection fully.

Midnight crouched on a ledge outside a narrow ventilation opening. Through his eyes, Lana saw part of the office below. Helmar stood beside a desk. His confidant, a dwarf in an undecorated brown coat, held an opened letter.

"The second crew was supposed to end this before he reached the gate." The confidant said.

"They failed." Helmar replied. "Now Tharic intends to place the ring in my hand without another payment. That is the result we need."

Lana did not move from her chair.

Midnight’s ears turned toward the opening.

"He wants a witnessed transfer." The confidant said.

"Give him one. Once he hands over the key, his copy of the record will not matter."

"If it is a key."

Helmar looked toward the letter. "The oldest account names it as one. My brother carried it. His father carried it before him. The account never states what it opens, but every surviving branch record points to the same object."

The confidant folded the page once.

"And Tharic?"

"He leaves under guard after the transfer. The road can finish what the first two crews did not. We cannot open whatever the old Ruskells sealed while another recognized bearer remains alive to contest it. The other branches will be handled when the ring tells us what our ancestors hid."

The words removed every harmless explanation.

Helmar had hired the assassins.

He intended to kill Tharic after receiving the ring. Whatever it opened, he believed possession required removing every family member capable of challenging him.

Lana rose without breaking Midnight’s connection.

The office door opened. A guard informed Helmar that the evening meal was ready. Helmar and his confidant left together. The folded letter remained on the desk beneath an open correspondence case.

Midnight waited until their steps reached the stair.

He entered through the ventilation opening, descended a hanging wall cloth, and crossed the desk. The letter smelled of sealing wax, leather, and the confidant’s hands. He caught one exposed corner in his teeth.

The paper resisted beneath the case.

Midnight placed one paw against the folded edge and pulled again. The page slid free without moving the stack above it. He carried it back across the desk, climbed the wall cloth, and disappeared into the ventilation shaft.

Lana met him in an unused stairwell.

The letter arrived damp at one corner and otherwise intact.

She read it once before waking the others.

Tharic recognized the seal immediately.

It did not bear the public Ruskell crest. The small mark pressed at the bottom of the page belonged to Helmar’s private correspondence and matched records Tharic had copied that afternoon. The page was Helmar’s retained order to the broker arranging the attacks.

[Payment for the second company is authorized. The bearer is to be killed. The family object worn upon his right hand is to be recovered intact. No substitute stone or setting will satisfy the agreement.]

The lower paragraph established what happened after failure.

[If the second company does not report, release the remaining reserve only after receiving my household mark. Additional names from the related branches will follow under separate terms.]

No list of names appeared. The reference to related branches was enough.

Tharic sat at the edge of the bed with the ring in one hand and the letter in the other.

"He sent both groups." He said.

No one tried to soften it.

"Midnight heard him call the ring a key." Lana said. "Helmar does not know what is inside whatever it opens. He intends to use it and remove anyone whose claim could interfere."

Tharic turned the ring until the green stone faced his palm.

"Even giving it up would stop family from killing family."

"Giving it to him would remove the reason to keep you alive." Nessa said.

The stronghold changed around them without moving.

The guards outside Tharic’s room answered to Helmar. The gate, stables, armory, and internal lifts did as well. Their rooms had been assigned together and watched for their protection. If they accused the head of the household before securing a route out, those same protections could become confinement.

Rod spread Dirk’s stronghold notes across the table.

"We do not confront him tonight."

Tharic placed the letter beside the map. "He expects the ring at first bell."

"Then he continues expecting it." Dirk said. "We use the time before the transfer."

They divided the work quietly.

Dirk would confirm which outer route remained open before dawn and whether the stronghold maintained a courier exit separate from the main gate. Dain would return to the stables under the reason of checking the animals and prepare them without ordering anyone to saddle five mounts at once. Nessa would pack the evidence inside a sealed medical lining where an ordinary room search would not find it quickly. Lana and Midnight would watch Helmar’s office, the guest corridor, and any guard changes around the family chamber.

Rod would remain visible with Tharic.

Leaving immediately through a guarded gate would reveal that they knew. Waiting too long would allow Helmar to separate Tharic from the party during the formal transfer.

They needed a route, a reason to move together, and enough time beyond the walls to survive whatever pursuit followed.

Tharic wrote a statement describing where Midnight found the letter and what Lana heard through the familiar. He signed it and pressed his own ring into a small piece of wax beside the signature. The statement did not replace the original evidence. It ensured Helmar could not destroy one page and claim the party invented everything afterward.

Nessa sealed the original inside the lining of her field case. Lana kept the signed statement beneath the inner sole of one boot. Dirk copied the payment language into his route notes without marking why it mattered.

Before dawn, Dirk returned from the lower wall. A courier postern opened onto a narrow mountain path, but two family guards controlled it and every traveler needed a household token. The main gate held more guards and more witnesses. Neither route could be forced quietly.

Dain reported that the mounts remained in their assigned stalls. He had loosened the travel tack from storage and placed their own supplies together without saddling anything. An open preparation would reach Helmar before they left the stable.

They still lacked the reason that would carry all six of them through one gate at the same time. For the moment, preserving Helmar’s expectations gave them more room than a failed escape attempt.

At breakfast, Helmar joined them beneath the family banners.

Tharic wore the ring on his right hand again.

He thanked his uncle for opening the archives and confirmed that he would bring the heirloom to the family chamber after dinner. His voice remained steady. Rod sat beside him while the others continued the tasks they had agreed upon.

Helmar accepted the confirmation and ordered the household steward to prepare the witnesses. Tharic finished the meal without looking toward the sealed evidence hidden in Nessa’s medical case.

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