Free Web NovelChapter 247: The Witness Does Not Look Away
The final drill ended with thirty-one recruits reaching the wall, leaving Hans dissatisfied but willing to release them for food.
Lana carried her complaint slate through the registry door after Marrick called, finding Hajin, Hans, Sable, and two guards beside the captured watcher.
The Flint quarantine order rested on the table beside a copied raid report and Lana’s drawing from the northern grate.
"He claims the riders hired him south of the border," Marrick said, checking the statement already recorded, "the captain gave him that paper after they reached our road."
"I carried messages," the watcher said, pulling once against the rope, "your wolf attacked me before I entered the fight."
"Which messages?" Marrick asked, holding his pen above the next line, waiting without helping him choose an answer.
"Road clearance," he said, looking toward the quarantine order, "I never saw the cart or the men near your grain."
Marrick wrote the denial exactly, then turned the ledger until the watcher could see every word.
"You followed Toma from the registry," Lana said, placing her drawing beside the order, "I saw you mark his water cart on a map."
"You were sitting near the payment line," she said, keeping one finger on the drawn face, "your coat covered the courier sash when the bell rang."
He had opened a narrow map across his knee, then copied the northern grate mark after Toma passed the registry.
Lana remembered stopping beside Marrick’s window to check a shelter name, giving her a clear view of his hand and the map.
"Write that part," she said, looking toward the ledger, "I did not see where he went after Toma reached the road."
Marrick recorded the limit before reading her statement back, removing one word that claimed she saw the abduction.
"The girl saw someone else," the watcher said, turning his shoulder toward Lana, "I entered town with the riders after the third bell."
Chalk snapped inside her hand, sending a thin pulse of mana through the slate pressed against her chest.
The same registry mark she had drawn appeared around the watcher’s wrist, closing beneath the rope before he could pull away.
Pressure forced his arm against the chair as the mark tightened, leaving his fingers unable to open.
"Take it off," he said, twisting against the rope, "I never touched that map."
The Brand tightened again, driving his marked wrist against the chair until Sable caught the frame behind him.
Hajin activated Divine Eye as Lana’s mana ran from the slate toward the watcher along one narrow line.
[ Awakened Skill: Witness Brand ]
[ A personally witnessed act has been anchored to the marked subject. ]
[ Events outside the witness’s memory cannot be judged or compelled. ]
"Stop denying the map," Hajin said, moving between Lana and the chair, "that is the only thing holding pressure on your arm."
"She is lying," the watcher said, forcing the words out, causing the mark to pull higher toward his elbow.
Lana gripped the slate with both hands, looking frightened by the pain despite refusing to turn away from him.
"I know what I saw," she said, keeping her voice near a whisper, "you copied the grate after Toma passed."
Marrick underlined that sentence without adding anything about the raid, keeping the Brand attached to one witnessed act.
The watcher stopped fighting the rope, though the mark continued pressing until he looked at the child’s drawing.
"I copied the grate," he said, swallowing before continuing, "the captain wanted the hauler route before the convoy moved."
Pressure left his arm at the admission, allowing his hand to open while the Brand remained visible beneath the rope.
Lana lowered the slate but stayed beside the table as Marrick recorded the admission, labeling the captain’s purpose as an unverified claim.
"Who gave the captain his order?" Hans asked, watching the man’s breathing settle, keeping the route map within his sight.
"Nobody you can reach," the watcher said, flexing his marked fingers, waiting for pain that never came.
The Brand did nothing, leaving the answer outside the event Lana had personally witnessed.
"He could be lying now," Lana said, looking toward Hajin, "I never saw anyone give him an order."
"Then we treat it as a claim," Hajin said, pointing toward Marrick’s ledger, "the mark does not make the rest true."
Marrick labeled the answer unverified before asking where the mercenaries had planned to regroup.
The watcher tested the Brand with another denial, claiming he had never heard the commander’s name during the raid.
His wrist remained free of pressure, confirming Lana could not reach beyond the map beside the registry.
"You can keep testing the child," Hans said, pulling the northern route sheet closer, "or you can tell me why your riders turned toward the old salt road."
The watcher looked at the map, finding Hans’s new post marks covering the approaches his team had recorded.
"Dreth’s survey riders use that road," he said, shifting his bound hands beneath the table, "we were told to leave the northern posts looking east."
Marrick recorded the name without underlining it, separating the watcher’s statement from Lana’s anchored testimony.
"When do they arrive?" Hans asked, moving one marker toward the salt road while studying the travel distance.
"The first group was two days behind us," the watcher said, watching the marker, "the army waits past the eastern pass until they finish the route."
"How many riders?" Hajin asked, following the old road toward the ridge where Juna had resumed patrol.
"I heard twelve assigned to the survey," he said, rubbing the Brand with his thumb, "Dreth keeps the rest outside your land until the notice reaches him."
None of those answers changed the mark, leaving Marrick to label each one unverified beside the time.
Hans compared the route with Juna’s report from the retreat, finding the missing riders had used the same northern turn.
"It fits the tracks," he said, placing the marker near the ridge post, "that does not make his number good."
"Send two patrols without bells," Hajin said, looking toward Sable, "Juna leads one, while Elise checks the lower road."
Sable left the registry to carry the order, keeping the watcher tied beneath both guards.
Lana remained near the table after everyone moved, staring at the Brand she had placed around the watcher’s wrist.
"I hurt him," she said, looking at the broken chalk in her palm, "I did not know it would do that."
"You anchored something you witnessed," Hajin said, crouching beside her, "you did not learn who hired him or whether Dreth has twelve riders."
"What happens if I remember wrong?" she asked, closing her fingers around both chalk pieces without crushing them again.
"Then the Brand may not form," he said, indicating the corrected statement, "describe what you saw, not what you think it meant."
Lana read the line that admitted she never saw the abduction, checking where Marrick had removed the unsupported word.
"The map is yours," Hajin said, standing beside her, "Dreth’s riders are still an unverified note in Marrick’s ledger."
Marrick handed Lana a new piece of chalk, then placed her signed statement in the raid ledger beneath the watcher’s correction.
Outside the registry, Hans ordered the northern post to watch the salt road without changing the public bell pattern.
Lana copied the patrol time onto her slate while the mark remained around the watcher’s wrist.
