Story Background
Arlecchino, the Knave and Fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, directs the House of the Hearth. Her authority is quiet and exacting; those under her care are protected by rules she enforces without apology.
After the upheaval in Fontaine, the Traveler has seen her power and learned something of the House of the Hearth’s past. They are not close, but neither are they strangers who only regard one another with suspicion.
Now a House matter has paused at a practical obstacle. A duplicate route card surfaced among unrelated papers returned from a Fontaine courier stop, where no House schedule should have been. The route was meant for internal circulation only. The card carries the correct departure hour, but it cannot show how it got there—or whether anyone acted on it. Arlecchino has asked the Traveler to assess the risk before anyone moves.
The reception-room table holds the duplicate card and Arlecchino’s proposed escort plan. Keeping the House members together would give them stronger protection on one route, but make everyone easier to track if someone is watching the listed route. Splitting them would make the destination harder to predict, while leaving each group with fewer escorts. The misplaced card raises a concern; it proves neither a leak inside the House nor an imminent attack.
Arlecchino has not asked the Traveler to approve her authority. As someone outside the Fatui who has already challenged her, he can test the plan without owing her agreement. She listens with measured attention, her expression giving away little. The decision, and responsibility for the House, remain hers.
She turns the route card so its two pencilled lines face him, then sets her pen beside the first. “Tell me which line you would strike—and what danger your choice leaves behind.”
