Vesper Falls was a small, exclusive community built around a high, thundering waterfall that masked the sound of its inhabitants. Lord Eamon's hunting lodge was ostentatious and isolated, protected less by guards and more by its secluded location and sophisticated, non-magical security.
They approached the lodge just after dusk. Kaelen scouted the perimeter. "The outer wall has pressure plates and rudimentary tripwires—designed to alert staff, not foil a mage. Easy to circumvent."
Elara, however, frowned. "Wait. There's a specific security measure I remember. Lady Selina, Eamon's wife, had a paralyzing fear of spiders and had a series of non-magical, complex wire traps installed on the north-facing windows. They were designed by a specialist locksmith, not a mage. They are silent and lethal if you hit the trigger."
Kaelen paused his attempt to bypass a simple stone latch. His expertise was in Aether manipulation, not lock-picking or physical traps. This was Elara's domain.
"Describe the traps," Kaelen demanded, his tone urgent.
Elara guided him around the back of the lodge. "They are small, almost invisible steel wires, tied to tension-release needles. They are set in a diamond pattern across the north window casings. You have to thread the needle through the center of the diamond without touching the outer wires."
Kaelen produced a set of fine jeweler's tools—another item acquired from his emergency stores—and began working on the window casing. He had to rely purely on physical skill and the light from his low-level Illumination Rune to see the almost invisible strands of wire.
The tension was palpable. Elara stood watch, her hands clasped tightly. Kaelen worked with the focus of a surgeon, his brow furrowed in concentration, not on Aether flow, but on the mundane mechanics of steel and tension.
After ten minutes of agonizing, minute adjustment, the window latch gave way. Kaelen slid the window open, pulling Elara inside.
The interior of the lodge was dark and richly furnished. Elara led them immediately to the private study. "Lady Selina wouldn't hide documents in a safe. She hid them where she thought her husband would never look—the most ostentatious and impractical piece of furniture."
She pointed to a towering, carved wooden display case used only for decorative ivory figurines.
"The bottom of the third shelf from the left," Elara whispered. "There's a small, false-bottomed compartment, disguised with a coat of pitch resin."
Kaelen's Blue Rank magic was still too volatile for close-quarters work. He used a tiny, heated blade to melt the pitch, revealing a narrow wooden seam. He worked the seam open, revealing a tightly bound bundle of scrolls tied with a red ribbon—the Scroll of Debts.
Elara snatched the scroll. It was light, smelling faintly of expensive perfume and old paper. The sight of the actual, physical proof of Eamon's corruption sent a surge of energy through her.
Proof acquired. The political weapon is armed.
"We have it," Kaelen stated, his relief muted but apparent. He reset the melted pitch and closed the window, leaving the lodge exactly as they had found it. "Now, the real challenge. We have the document, but we must return to the Sunstone Caves to access the Codex. Without it, we cannot create the Broadcast Rune necessary to deliver this information across the Kingdom without being traced."
They melted back into the night, the Scroll of Debts—a sheet of ordinary paper and ink—now the most dangerous weapon in their arsenal.