Reinald's Perspective (21st Leaffall)

21st Leaffall — Early Midday: At the Ragnaisse warehouse, Douglas tells him what he needs to know about the waterworks: the Alluran Dam, an hour by horse and a half-day on foot. He also mentions that the largest warehouse in the Scaffold is a place to ask for help, if it comes to that.

21st Leaffall — Early Midday: Back at the mansion, Victoria is mid-conversation with Aveline and already frustrated. She explains that Lewys gave her nothing useful — he arrived knowing something had happened but won't be drawn on it. The new regulations, the door-to-door inspections: he's searching for something, and whatever he's doing, it isn't going according to plan. Reinald raises the waterworks — two shop owners sick since yesterday, both heavy water users, and something connecting it to the sewers. Victoria explains that the Alluran Dam is protected infrastructure overseen by the Meadowthorne family: Duncan on security, Soren on its inner workings, their father commanding every guard in the city. She doubts direct involvement. She rules out raising it with Lewys. Aveline says she'll look in the trade records; the Meadowthorne's have supply agreements with the De Ragnaisse.

21st Leaffall — Midday: Stepping back outside, he spots Brigitte and Branded almost immediately — two unmistakable figures heading toward Haven's Reach. Röka is curious. Reinald keeps his distance and follows.

21st Leaffall — Midday: He peels off across the street as they head into Felix's shop, taking cover in the flower shop opposite. An elderly taufolk named Tauren runs The Gentle Grasses. He shows Reinald a Lily of the Valley — very rare, a new addition. When Reinald asks to know more, Tauren pulls the curtains. The shop goes pitch-black. The flower glows iridescent, pulsing blue, before the curtains come back up and it returns to ordinary color. Tauren mentions a delivery expected from the Greenlaw Trading Company. Reinald places the name: Angus' trading company. By the time he steps back outside, he's lost them. He heads for the Scaffold.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: At the Drunken Phoenix, Reinald finds a job board he missed entirely on his first visit — a note from Sonya asking for help sourcing herbs. A young man named Pascal appears beside him: human, late twenties, Free Roadsmen clothes, unusually vivid orange eyes. He mentions picking up a job near the dam. Reinald launches into a ramble about hyenakin population growth patterns and watches Pascal's face throughout. For most of it, Pascal looks politely baffled — but at one specific moment, when the ramble gets close enough to something to matter, his eye twitches. He was listening to all of it. Pascal wraps up the conversation at a point of his own choosing and leaves.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: At the Bubbling Cauldron, Sonya sends him after mushrooms in the sea caves near the Crow's Pier beach — the Ambassador's Pier cave has partially caved in. She warns him not to touch them with bare skin, mentions that territorial sea creatures may object to his presence, and hands him collecting bags. In exchange, a potion of Arcane Breath on his return. She also recommends Laundro Mattie's for the ooze stains still visible in his coat, and mentions the stamp card with the enthusiasm of a loyal regular.

Reinald & Branded | Afternoon | 21st of Leaffall

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: The cave on the Crow's beach is past the point where casual visitors stop, marked by a trickle of water down the rock face. Some of the mushrooms inside have already been trampled. Reinald finds two intact ones, harvests them, and packs them away. Then the scraping starts — something on stone, further in. He moves toward it. Nothing around the next corner. Just the sound getting louder, and a light source ahead that isn't his.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: Branded arrives at the other entrance with a small flame. He spots a purple glow ahead — faint, pulsing — and dims the light. Something large moves in the dark between them, claws on stone. The sound pulls at something familiar: like Salt or Pepper dragging themselves across the cage floor after a bad fight.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: Reinald presses against the rock wall and watches a hooded figure move through the chamber. The scraping isn't coming from them — something else is making it, something larger, somewhere in the dark between him and the light source ahead. The purple glow pulses from the figure's throat. Neither Reinald nor Branded knows the other is there...

Brigitte's Perspective (21st Leaffall)

21st Leaffall — Early Midday: An hour on the beach. Brigitte sits with the ocean in front of her and the night behind her, trying to piece together what she remembers and failing. Branded keeps quiet beside her, which is apparently something he can do when instructed.

21st Leaffall — Early Midday: Gurak tells her to take time off the cage and focus on the mayor. She doesn't argue. She asks if Branded can come along. He says he has no objections, glances between them, and leaves. Something passes between him and Branded in eye contact alone before he goes.

21st Leaffall — Midday: She briefs Branded on the essentials — the mayor, the replacement, Katrien — and leaves Reinald's name out. Branded suggests they start at the tailor. At Felix's, it goes poorly. He delivers his story with the smooth confidence of someone who has practiced it. She presses, overextends, and gets asked to leave. The tension is broken by a deerfolk customer emerging from a changing booth, delighted with her new evening gown. Back on the street, Branded tells her Felix is a former Voidbreaker — one of the most accomplished. She says nothing. He adds she shouldn't mess with him. She still says nothing.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: On the way through the Scaffold District, a smell hits her outside the Temple of Allura at exactly the wrong pitch. Not the same smell. Just the intensity. She steadies herself and moves on.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: Guards are stripping the temple's inventory on the new mayor's orders. The cleric, Lissa Juniperthorne, watches and pleads. Brigitte asks a guard exactly how they're determining what's illegal. He raises his spear. She makes a donation of five gold directly in front of him, hands it to the cleric without a word, and says nothing further. Branded takes several visible steps backward during this exchange.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: The cleric mentions confessionals — off the records, no judgment, whatever Idol the person prefers. Would she like tea? Inside, Branded removes his hood for the first time she's seen. Without the blindfold, glasses appear on his face as if from nowhere. Before agreeing to anything, Brigitte asks whether the confessional is actually confidential. She phrases it more bluntly than that. The cleric glances out the window at the guards still loading her inventory, then back. The look says everything it needs to.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: She doesn't tell the whole story — she tells the shape of it. A rule broken without knowing she was breaking it. A friend who wants her gone, with every reason to. The hardest part: she agrees with that friend. The cleric says walls people build for themselves get projected onto others, and that if these people are truly her friends, the walls have to come down on both sides. Brigitte says that's actually quite smart. She was going to try a gift basket. Stepping out, the cleric takes her hands — something faintly magical, steadying. Brigitte asks if she needs to stop swearing. The cleric says there are theories that people who swear are more honest than those who pretty their words.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: Back in the main hall, Branded has moved seats slightly. Sweat runs down his face and his heartbeat is fast and uneven. She suggests some air. Outside, he doesn't explain and she doesn't ask.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: At the Bubbling Cauldron, Sonya mentions with perfect casualness that Reinald came in earlier and she sent him to the beach caves for mushrooms. Brigitte asks which beach. Sonya says she told him either side could work. One of those beaches has a body on it. They leave Sonya mid-sentence. They split: Brigitte toward the Ambassador's Pier, Branded toward the Crow's beach.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: At the Ambassador's Pier, Pepper is surrounded by guards with spears raised — soaked through, bleeding, unable to manage common. When he sees her face in the crowd, something in him steadies. She gets through the guard line, walks him down the beach, and pours a healing potion into him. Something has happened to Salt, he says. He points toward the other beach.

21st Leaffall — Afternoon: Commander Osian watched all of this. He commandeers a dockworker's boat and tells Brigitte she will meet him at the assessor's office at dusk. She says she'll consider it. He reminds her it wasn't a suggestion. She nods and starts rowing.