The first Alder wayhouse had received three reports about Eirwen’s human husband before the party reached its gate.
None of the messengers had seen Hajin’s face, yet each report gave him a command, rank, plus marriage the treaty did not contain.
One version made him a human general waiting to command the border, while another made him a prince of the Sixth who had demanded an Alder princess.
A third called him Eirwen’s husband and listed every guard as his future subordinate.
Hajin folded the pages beside the wayhouse stove, and the title had crossed the road faster than the people carrying it.
"The story made me more important and more trapped in one sentence, and every official now has a reason to test the cage."
Eirwen flattened the first report, and Ferra tested the root-scribed hinges near the door, while Juna watched the living branches scraping the roof.
"The report is wrong, and I will correct it before courtesy hardens into law."
Didi sat beside the records table with the Crown seal wrapped in cloth while Elina copied each version.
The inquiry ledger preserved wording that had already begun changing how strangers addressed Hajin.
"A title becomes a legal fact when enough officials repeat it, and correction requires witnesses rather than irritation."
The wayhouse keeper entered with two Alder officials and a ceremonial guard wearing green armor too polished for the rain-damp road. The older official bowed toward Eirwen, then turned his hand toward Hajin without asking his name.
"High Envoy, the Court welcomes your human husband, and the guard awaits his command before the next road inspection."
Eirwen stood and took Hajin’s hand in front of the room, then placed the corrected report between them so the official could see both the gesture and the denial.
"He is my accepted suitor under embassy witness, not my husband under Alder treaty, and he commands no Alder soldier."
The guard captain looked from their joined hands to the Chain case and said, "The report calls the Lord of the Sixth leader of this expedition, and the soldiers need a clear authority before we leave."
Hajin withdrew his hand only after Eirwen released it and said, "I lead my household’s choices, and soldiers who have not chosen me keep their appointed commander."
The captain pointed toward the polished armor and said, "If an attack comes, will Alder soldiers stand behind you while you decide whether they belong to your command?"
"I will stand beside soldiers who accept orders from their officers, and I will not turn a rumor into authority over people I did not recruit."
Eirwen moved between the captain and the Chain case as her cloak brushed Hajin’s sleeve, and the living branch above the door bent toward her voice.
"A treaty that confuses cooperation with ownership will fail during its first crisis, and I will not make Hajin the shortcut between your offices and mine."
The older official opened a second report and said, "The Court expects your accepted suitor to hold a visible position, and officials need one person to petition when supplies or soldiers require a decision."
"Petition the embassy for Alder matters or the Sixth through its offices, and do not turn a man beside me into a door that every office can own."
The official’s gaze moved to Hajin’s hand, where the battle scars remained visible beneath the glove and said, "You returned with a powerful human, and now you hide him behind careful words."
Eirwen lifted the corrected report and said, "I am naming the relationship he accepted, not hiding the strength he possesses."
Juna leaned near the window and said, "If the Court wants a general, it should ask the person who trains soldiers, and if it wants a husband, it should ask Eirwen whom she chose."
Loccy called from the wagon door and said, "If the road needs a bridge held, ask the person who can carry it, and do not dress her in a uniform after the report frightened you."
The guard captain studied the party as a council rather than a single command and said, "Your household speaks like a council, and the title has made one answer too convenient for the Court to ignore."
"We speak like people who own our choices, and you should hear those choices before assigning rank."
Didi unwrapped the Crown seal without lifting it toward the officials, and the older official glanced at the device before pointing toward the registry case beside Elina’s ledger.
"Does the Crown recognize this human as a regional lord, or must Alder decide his standing before your party crosses the border?"
"The Crown recognizes Hajin’s territory and its obligations, and that recognition grants Alder no authority over his household."
Elina wrote the statement into the inquiry ledger while the older official’s expression hardened.
Didi refused to let the connected child receive any label stronger than the available evidence.
"The Crown recognizes an unresolved case, and I will not give you a noun that turns an unnamed person into property."
The official closed the registry file and said, "A Court cannot welcome a party whose most important relationships refuse a public name, and the High Envoy’s silence will be recorded if she declines formal correction."
Eirwen took the pen from the official’s hand and said, "I am not silent, and I will sign the correction as my choice rather than permission for the Court to decide what I feel."
Her signature crossed the report, and the ink dried beside the phrase accepted suitor from the Sixth, while the marriage claim remained visibly denied.
Hajin added his own signature beneath hers and said, "I accept the suitor’s place after hearing the terms, and I accept no Alder command attached to it."
The guard captain stepped closer to the table and said, "A report that removes my soldiers from his authority leaves me exposed if the road turns hostile, and the Court will blame the captain who followed it."
"Your appointed commander keeps the decision, and I will not countermand a retreat merely to satisfy a rumor calling me general."
Ferra closed the instrument case and said, "Useful laws are difficult to make dramatic, and dramatic laws age badly once a real road tests them."
The guard captain accepted the first report from the older official and immediately turned toward one waiting soldier and said, "Salute the Lord of the Sixth, and follow his hand if the road ward breaks before the appointed commander speaks."
Hajin stepped between the soldier and the order and said, "The report is still being corrected, and no soldier receives an invented command merely to make the rumor look organized."
Eirwen removed the report from the captain’s fingers and handed it back to the official and said, "The title has already been used to place a person beneath him, and that is the harm the correction must stop."
The soldier lowered his hand as rain struck the green armor around his shoulders.
The captain saw Hajin as a man refusing power instead of a commander who had lost it.
"Your refusal leaves my office responsible for its own orders, and the Court will call that inconvenience a challenge if it cannot call it obedience."
"Let the Court call it what it wants, and let the road keep the commander the soldiers already chose."
The older official gathered the corrected pages and produced a fresh green seal and said, "The Court invites the accepted suitor and the High Envoy to answer this relationship before the border court, and refusal will leave the original report active in public circulation."
Eirwen read the invitation as the rumor had created a challenge with a room, witnesses, and a deadline, giving the Court a way to force private choice into public procedure.
The fresh seal carried another line for Hajin’s rank plus a blank space for Eirwen’s relationship.
The Court had corrected its first lie while leaving room to demand a more useful one.
Eirwen folded the invitation beneath her cloak and said, "The blank space is deliberate, and I will fill it with my choice rather than with the Court’s preferred title."
"We will attend the border court, and I will name the relationship there without granting the authority the rumor tried to attach."
Hajin looked toward the wet road and said, "I will stand beside you, and the correction will travel with the person who was misnamed."
The party left the wayhouse under the corrected report while Eirwen held the lead wagon’s rail.
Hajin walked beside her without touching the reins or accepting the guard captain’s salute.
The title continued ahead through the rain as this time, the people carrying the correction traveled with it, and the border court waited to make their chosen relationship answer in public.