Searching for Drosta’s treasure to win Hettie’s freedom

Annon and Hettie’s search for Drosta’s treasure is framed as a rescue from a life measured in debts: Hettie seeks a permanent release from the Romani custom that will see her sold again when she turns eighteen, while Annon and Paedrin insist that their help is freely given. Tyrus points them toward Erasmus in Havenrook, but the treasure is not the fortune they expect. It is something valuable enough to have been hidden and protected, and the road to it runs through danger, mistrust, and an argument over what freedom can be bought—and what should never be treated as a debt.

A Freedom Put to a Price

Hettie’s search grows from the insecurity of her position. Tyrus explains that she was stolen as a child and that, when she was nearly eight, he hired a Finder to locate her. The price demanded was a king’s ransom; Tyrus refused to pay it, reasoning that she was being sheltered and cared for. The Finder later paid for her from his own purse, without being asked, and Hettie spent the following ten years in the woods near the lowlands of Alkire. She became a Finder herself and eventually found Tyrus in Kenatos.

Now staying at the Bhikhu temple, Hettie faces another sale as she approaches eighteen. Tyrus says she can purchase permanent freedom from the custom and no longer wear the earring, but warns that the sum will be exorbitant. He refuses to bid himself because his involvement would raise the price. Instead, he offers another route: the Romani have long sought the treasure left in the mountains by the earlier Paracelsus, Drosta. Tyrus knows a man who knows its location and the key words that open its door; that man, Erasmus, lives in Havenrook.

Tyrus presents the expedition as a way to keep Hettie from being sold as a wife or for another purpose, yet he resists calling his intervention sentiment. His practical arrangements speak instead: he has told Hettie about Erasmus, asked the Bhikhu master to send an escort, and sent Reeder to find Annon before she departs. The quest is thus set in motion through a chain of assistance that each participant understands differently—as rescue, duty, favor, or a debt that ought not to exist.

The Escort and the Terms of Help

Master Shivu chooses Paedrin to escort Tyrus’s niece. Though Paedrin is only seventeen and would ordinarily be kept at the monastery until eighteen, Shivu judges him ready because he longs to see the world beyond Kenatos, is Vaettir-born, and is the most accomplished Bhikhu student Shivu has trained in many years. Tyrus supports the temple and believes he owes it a debt; Shivu counters that no true debt exists, because what was given was given freely and what was lost was lost freely. He charges Paedrin to protect Hettie and see her safely on the journey, explicitly warning him not to expect a reward.

The destination is Havenrook, the seat of Romani power. Shivu warns that the town and the wooded road leading to it are dangerous, and that the laws and customs Paedrin knows from Kenatos will not govern the journey. Paedrin leaves at dawn with a reminder to remember his training and the ways of the Uddhava. The assignment carries him beyond the protected routines of the temple and places his Bhikhu discipline inside a conflict over money, custom, and personal freedom.

Hettie, for her part, tries to define the arrangement before accepting help. She tells Annon that her whole life has been a debt and asks how much of the treasure he expects in return for joining her. Annon takes her hand and refuses even a ducat or a pent: as a Druidecht, he says, he has no real need for money, and he believes Tyrus chose them because they would help freely. Hettie does not accept reassurance without qualification. She offers him a portion willingly and insists that they agree on it in advance, unwilling to become indebted both to Annon and to the Bhikhu.

Annon maintains his refusal. He contrasts himself with Tyrus, says that Druidecht knowledge of woodlands can help them avoid danger, and adds that he and Hettie both have the fire if the road becomes difficult. Hettie recognizes his sincerity but feels the distance between his upbringing and hers: his refusal to claim a share seems almost alien to the life she has known. Their exchange makes the treasure quest more than a practical bargain. Even before they reach it, they must negotiate whether aid creates an obligation, and whether freedom can be secured without reproducing the very logic of debt from which Hettie wants to escape.

The Hidden Treasure and Its Keeper

As the party prepares for the journey, Annon tells Paedrin that Hettie wants to buy her freedom and will be sold again when she turns eighteen. They are going to find Erasmus, who knows where the treasure is hidden, and persuade him to help them reach it. Annon explains the obstacle: only a Paracelsus can open the door, and Tyrus has given him the necessary knowledge. He expects Erasmus to ask for a portion as payment for guiding them, and hopes to negotiate terms in Hettie’s favor. Though he admits that he knows little about negotiation, he believes the Druidecht’s role as peacemakers between kingdoms may help him make a fair arrangement.

Erasmus immediately unsettles that plan. When Annon declares that they seek Drosta’s lair, Erasmus calls the undertaking impossible and refuses to go. He has inferred that the group was attacked on the road to Havenrook and that fireblood may have set the road ablaze, threatening trade. He also warns that danger will follow them to his home because they asked for him by name. His rapid deductions reveal a man alert to the consequences of their arrival, not a neutral guide waiting to claim a share of a treasure.

Erasmus then exposes a crucial mistake in their understanding. Kiranrao has sought Drosta’s treasure for years and offers a bounty to anyone who can lead him to it, but the treasure is not coin. Tyrus, Erasmus says, wanted to ensure that the safeguards could not be breached and asked him to test them; Erasmus failed to break them, and Tyrus was satisfied that the hidden object was safe. Erasmus knows where the treasure is, but not what it is. He further says it was placed there to keep something of enormous value out of the hands of the Romani or the Preachán, in a fortress among the Cruithne rather than in Havenrook.

The revelation changes the expedition’s stakes. Annon and Hettie have been led to expect wealth that could pay for freedom, but Erasmus’s account describes a protected object whose value cannot be measured in coin and whose location has attracted Kiranrao’s long pursuit. The route to Hettie’s release may therefore depend on something that was hidden precisely to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Annon, Paedrin, and Hettie must decide whether to trust the man who knows the location, even though he refuses to travel with them and their pursuers are already closing in.

Coercion and Departure

When Erasmus refuses, Annon tells him that Tyrus believed he could be trusted. Erasmus rushes to the window, sees torches in the street, and orders the group to leave at once. He calls for Dwyer and begins driving the visitors out, insisting that they have brought enough trouble already. Hettie pleads with him to help, but urgency alone does not change his mind.

Paedrin stops Erasmus as he reaches for his sleeve. He catches the Preachán’s hand and twists him into an armlock, careful to say that he does not intend to hurt him if he remains still. Then he gives Erasmus a choice: gather what he needs and come with them, or Paedrin will return to the Millpond and tell Kiranrao that Erasmus knows where Drosta’s lair is. Paedrin’s threat uses the danger Erasmus fears as leverage, turning a Bhikhu’s protective assignment into an act of coercion.

Erasmus acknowledges the tactic as black-hearted but wise under the circumstances. He orders Dwyer to fetch his cloak and points out that none of the travelers speaks the Cruithne tongue, a practical difficulty they had not anticipated. Dwyer, still holding his cudgel at the rear door, offers to buy them as much time as he can and directs them toward the woods, where darkness may conceal them briefly. Hettie’s face stiffens with disgust at Paedrin’s conduct. The party has secured its guide, but not without a cost to the moral terms of its expedition: the search for freedom proceeds through an imposed threat, and the man enlisted to help them must now flee the people who would use his knowledge for themselves.