The tunnel without signatures

Velda chooses a team of five people to inspect the northern tunnel: herself, Nym, Zaelyra, Rhylor and a guard named Delli. Kethra remained at the Vault. The council feared that an old acquaintance of his brokers would take advantage of his presence to make traces disappear.

"I don't blame them," she told Zaelyra. "They don't know me enough to know when I'm lying."

"You could come with us and answer the questions."

"They said no. I'm not going to prove to them that they're right to be suspicious."

The conversation ended there. Kethra did not sulk; she took care of the food list with the injured man's sister.

The northern tunnel was an old connection between the Vault and a storage station. The entrance had been condemned by dry-laid blocks, but an opening let the air through. Velda explained that road signs had been disappearing in this area for several months. These were not complete maps, only tokens that indicated which teams had checked the galleries.

"Someone takes them to prevent others from knowing who passed by? Zaelyra asked.

"Or to resell them."

"You don't know?"

"If we knew, we wouldn't need you."

They cleared the blocks just enough to get in. Delli passed the first, tied to a rope. The ground was covered with fine metallic dust. Cart marks were heading east, but were interrupted at the foot of a slope.

"Nothing comes back," says Nym.

"What does that mean?" asked Rhylor.

"The wheels are in. There is no trace of exit."

"They may have been raised."

"Yes. Or the cart is still in it."

The slope led to an old deposit. The roof had partially collapsed; empty boxes were stacked near a door. Velda recognized the symbols of several communities on the wood. Some boxes had been opened cleanly, others broken with tools.

"What did they contain? Zaelyra asked.

"Road plates, lamps and tools. It was a reserve post."

"Some food?"

"Never. Food attracts too many people."

They found step marks in the dust. Many went to the back door, but only one type of sole returned to the entrance. A trace stopped in front of a pillar, as if someone had sat down.

Delli discovered a metal wire stretched behind a box. Velda ordered him not to touch him. Nym followed the wire to a bell hidden in a cavity. The device was not dangerous; it warned someone of the arrival of visitors.

"Is there someone behind?" asked Rhylor.

"Maybe," Zaelyra replied. "We don't know how long he's been there."

Velda made the signal from the Vault: three strokes, a pause, then two. Nothing answered.

They advanced to the back door. It was locked, but the door had been forced and then closed. On the metal, a trace of copper had been crushed against the frame.

Nym collected a fragment. "Same alloy as the fake plate of the Market of the thresholds?"

"You have to compare," says Zaelyra.

They didn't open the door. Velda had not given them the right to enter the sealed depot, only to inspect the tunnel. She called the Vault by the signal wire, then waited.

After a few minutes, someone knocked on the other side of the door: three knocks, one pause, then two.

Delli stepped back. Rhylor pulled out his knife, but kept it along his thigh.

"We are from the Vault," announced Velda. "Who are you?"

A weak voice replied: "My name is Korr. I have a leg taken."

"How many are you?"

"One."

"Since when?"

"I don't know. Two days. Maybe three."

Velda looked at Zaelyra. "We are not allowed to open without knowing if the door is unstable."

Nym inspected the hinges. They were twisted, but the frame did not have a crack. He asked the person behind the door if she could take a few steps away.

"I can't."

"So tell us where you are, in relation to the door."

"On the left. The wall fell on my leg."

They removed the boxes that blocked the door, then opened slowly. Korr was a dwarf with a red beard, stuck under a beam. His face was gray with fatigue, but he kept a lamp on near him.

Delli and Rhylor stabilized the beam while Nym cleared the stones. Zaelyra spoke to Korr to keep him awake. He was not one of the five travelers; he worked at the depot as a temporary guard. Two people had come to get the plates and promised to pay him. When he refused, they pushed the boxes against the door and caused the landslide.

"Did you recognize them?" asked Velda.

"No. They had hoods."

"Did they wear marks?"

"One of the two had a spider badge. The other, nothing."

Zaelyra noted that the witness could see a symbol, without knowing which group it belonged to. Korr could not tell if it was a stylized spider or a simple loop.

They managed to free his leg. It wasn't broken, but he couldn't walk without help. Inside the depot, several plates had disappeared. A box remained open on a table; it contained fragments of black wax and a list of unnamed numbers.

Velda didn't touch anything before calling two other goalkeepers. When they arrived, she had the objects inventoried in the presence of Korr. The wax fragments came from messages from the Vault, but no complete seal remained.

"They took the passage plates and left the maps? Zaelyra asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"A map indicates where to go. A plaque indicates who has the right to pass."

"They can sell the two separately."

Velda nodded. "Or use them together."

Korr was brought back to the Vault. Before leaving, he asked that his name not appear on the public map.

"The people who locked me up know I was working here," he says. "They don't need a drawing to find it. But others don't need to read it."

Zaelyra registered the depot as a place of danger and the date of the incident, without attaching the name of the guard. She added that two intruders had been observed, with no certainty about their identity.

On their return, the council asked them if the tunnel was safe. Velda replied that it had not collapsed, but that the deposit had been forced. She did not recommend reopening until the doors were reinforced.

"Do the fake plates come from this depot?" asked Hara.

"We can't say that," says Nym. "The fragments look alike, but we don't have enough metal to compare."

"The guard saw a spider," Rhylor added.

"He saw a symbol that he believes to be a spider," Zaelyra corrected. "He did not identify it as the trademark of a House."

Jhaer took note of the precision. For the first time, he did not dispute Zaelyra's insistence.

The group had found a living person, a looted deposit and two unknown intruders. He had not found the five missing travelers or the manufacturer of the plates.

The report would be less satisfactory than an accusation.

It would be more difficult to use to condemn someone by mistake.