You arrived with questions and no map. The settlement at the edge of the old road is quieter than it should be. Torchlight flickers against stone walls worn smooth by decades of careful hands. Someone has been here a long time, watching who comes and goes. Aldric finds you before you find shelter. His offer is simple: guidance, no strings attached. But his eyes measure you in ways his smile does not. Vossa leans in the doorway behind him, arms crossed, already skeptical. She has seen newcomers before. Most of them were trouble. You are the unknown variable. What you do next sets everything in motion.