Severin turned right before the clerk lowered her pen.
The Guild representative stayed beside the service desk. Good. Severin had bought access from the Guild. He hadn’t bought the man’s company.
The registry corridor ran deeper into the building, with the client board and morning traffic fading behind them. A waist-high counter sat recessed into the left wall, 12 paces down. A dark wooden door closed the far end of the passage.
Severin led. Alicia followed within 1 step of his left shoulder, her tail clear of the wall. Saelith kept the same distance on his right, bow in her left hand, point angled toward the floor.
The corridor was wide enough for all 3 of them, but not for careless turns. Alicia tucked her tail closer when they passed a stack of empty document trays. Saelith shifted her bow before its lower limb could touch the plaster.
A narrow-faced man sat behind the recessed counter. His grey sleeves were rolled above his wrists. An open ledger lay on his side, beside a sheet, an ink cup, a sand cup, and a square brass stamp. The wood before him had been worn smooth by hands and coin.
His eyes went past Severin to the service desk, then back.
"Independent claim?"
"For a sword."
"Name?"
"Severin Morcant."
The man pulled the sheet to the counter’s edge. "2 Gold. You sign as the person presenting the object and accepting responsibility for it in our room. Appraisal terms are separate."
Direct. Better than another sales speech.
Severin stopped centered before the counter. Alicia moved to the outer-left angle, where she could see the sheet and anyone approaching from the hall. Saelith took the outer-right and shifted her bow farther from the wood.
"Watch the paper and the coin," Severin said.
"Yes, Master."
The claims clerk looked at Alicia’s ears, then at Severin. Whatever thought passed through his head stayed there. He turned the sheet around.
"2 Gold for the appraisal?" Severin asked.
"For the filing. The chamber charges separately."
"Then keep the charges separate on the paper."
"Already separate. Last line."
Severin lifted it with his right hand and supported the lower edge with his left.
The first line asked for his lawful name. The second asked for the object. Beneath them sat 2 smaller boxes, a Guild badge box and a recorded Hunter Rank box. The boxes were empty.
The claimant line stated that the signer presented himself as the current owner and contracting claimant. The next line made him answer for his own handling of the weapon and any damage caused by that handling inside the Guild room. A separate line left methods, fees, and test consent to the appraisal entry.
The page gave no origin, grade, value, or account of what the sword could do.
"Badge?" the clerk asked.
"No."
"Recorded Rank?"
"No."
The man reached for a thin wooden marker beside the ledger. "I can send you for an assessment now. Fill the field before we finish this."
Severin kept the sheet unsigned. "Required?"
"No. Easier."
"For whom?"
The clerk’s fingers stopped on the marker. "Clients who want a number. Clerks who don’t enjoy explaining empty boxes. You, if you plan to answer work that demands a recorded Rank."
"Does the assessment change who owns the sword?"
"No."
"Does it change whether I can sign the appraisal contract?"
"No."
"Then I’m not taking it. Leave the badge and Rank blank."
The clerk released the marker. "Fine. Saves me a walk."
Saelith’s gaze remained on his hands. She didn’t move toward the paper or offer a word in Severin’s place.
The clerk pointed to the object line. "Write the kind, not the history."
"1 sword."
His brows lifted a fraction. "You don’t know what kind?"
"I know what it is. You don’t need more for this sheet."
Alicia’s ears tipped toward the man.
He gave a short breath through his nose. "Correct. 1 sword is enough for the claim. The appraisers can complain about everything else."
Severin lowered the sheet to the counter but kept his hands on its edges.
"This line." He touched the room-liability clause. "What does it cover in this branch?"
"You bring the weapon in. You keep control of it. If you swing it, drop it, discharge it, or damage the room through your handling, the claim points back to you."
"And if their test damages it?"
"That belongs to the appraisal terms. Read those before you agree."
"Does this filing authorize a test?"
"No. It authorizes us to open the appraisal entry under your name." The clerk leaned back. "It’s a claim sheet, Morcant, not a marriage vow."
Severin looked at the line again.
The answer matched the paper. That mattered more than the man’s patience.
"Does your stamp certify the sword is mine?"
"It certifies that you filed the claim here and accepted this line." The clerk tapped the liability clause with a blunt nail. "If another claimant appears, the stamp doesn’t make them vanish. It gives us a name for the object you’re bringing into our room."
"And the Guild takes no share through this filing."
"No share."
"No right to keep it after the room contract ends."
"Not through this sheet." The clerk’s mouth tightened. "Most badge-holders don’t ask that."
"They should."
"They don’t."
The public hall sent a burst of boots and laughter down the corridor. It faded before anyone reached the recessed desk.
Severin read the lines that mattered again. Name. Object. Claim. His handling. Separate appraisal terms. No oath followed them. No dues line waited at the bottom. The badge and Rank boxes remained blank.
"No witness?" he asked.
"Not for this filing. You’re making the claim under your own name."
"I’m not asking anyone here to make it with me."
"Then sign it yourself."
Saelith stood at his outer-right, bow still angled down. The clerk kept the sheet centered before Severin, and she didn’t reach for it.
Severin set the sheet flat and took the pen. His left hand pinned the page while his right wrote Severin Morcant beneath the claimant line.
The nib scratched across the paper. A small bead of ink gathered at the last stroke. He lifted the pen before it spread and returned it to the clerk.
The clerk checked the signature against the name at the top. "Fee."
Severin reached into the Void.
2 Gold settled into his right palm. He placed the coins on the counter.
The clerk counted them with 2 taps of his forefinger, slid them into a shallow tray, and wrote the paid mark beside Severin’s signature.
Alicia watched the tray, the ledger, and the sheet without speaking. Her tail stayed motionless behind her boots.
The clerk laid the signed page beside his ledger and copied the name and object class into an open line. The ledger never crossed the counter. Severin could still read the new entry from where he stood.
Severin Morcant. Independent claimant. 1 sword.
The clerk pressed the brass stamp into a dark pad, then brought it down on the lower corner of the sheet. The impact cracked through the narrow corridor. He sprinkled sand over the wet mark, waited for the ink to settle, and tipped the grains back into their cup.
A narrow claimant copy came from beneath the ledger. The clerk wrote Severin’s name, 1 sword, and the paid mark on it, checked the lines against the original, then stamped the copy. The Guild sheet returned to his side. The copy came across the counter.
Severin received it with his right hand and supported the bottom with his left.
The name was correct. The object remained 1 sword. The claimant line carried no second owner. The liability clause matched what he had accepted. The appraisal terms remained separate. The paid mark showed 2 Gold. The badge and Rank fields were blank.
Alicia leaned enough to check the counter without crossing in front of him.
"The Guild kept the 2 coins and its sheet, Master. Your copy came back. Nothing of yours stayed on the counter."
"Good."
The filing payment left his personal coin at 174 Stellar Gold 1 Gold 3 Silver 5 Copper.
Severin Stored the stamped copy with the Greycross transaction papers.
The clerk fixed the Guild sheet beneath a narrow bar in the ledger and marked a box at the far right.
"Claim is active for this request," he said. "Still want the appraisal?"
"Yes."
"Then I route it to the chamber."
"Where?"
The clerk nodded toward the dark door at the corridor’s end. "There. They won’t open it until the claim is in the book."
He looked at the ledger. "Object class?"
"You wrote it."
"I did." The clerk raised his voice. "Independent sword claim ready."
No bell answered him. No runner appeared. He returned to the ledger and added a short mark beside Severin’s name.
The silence held under the public hall’s distant noise and a pen scratching beyond the dark door.
Severin waited with his hands free.
Alicia left the outer corner and settled behind-left again. Saelith shifted behind-right, turning her bow so its limb would clear the doorframe.
The door opened inward.
A woman in a grey apron stood beyond it. Her sleeves were tied close at the forearms. She looked first at the claims clerk, then at Severin, Alicia, and Saelith. Her gaze touched Saelith’s bow and moved on.
"Morcant?"
"Yes."
"Claimant for 1 sword?"
"Yes."
She opened the door wider and stepped aside.
"Bring the sword inside."