Search Coen’s home, return to Anca, then use Brencis’s Banner as the dead soldier’s catalyst. Casting Compel Soul alone does not finish the questioning stage.
Clear the house investigation
- Follow Anca from her hut to Laslea. Search the family home rather than immediately continuing to the gate.
- Use Focus and finish all seven interior clues reported by ATH's full route: Lunka's toy on the beam, the broken bench, garlic and onions by the window, floor blood, sausages, hobnailed boot prints and the displaced bed. Check for investigation feedback after each one.
- Return to Anca after the investigation updates. Learn Compel Soul through her interaction and use it on the soldier.
Make the first ritual start
Move close to the soldier, keep Focus Mode held and aim at the highlighted body. Use the displayed Compel Soul action, then choose the attempt option rather than leaving. Follow your current bindings: this source’s keyboard example is not a universal interaction key.
If the action is absent, check distance, target and whether Focus is still active. If you left the dialogue, initiate it again. A first successful ritual without useful information is expected here; it leads to the catalyst search, not straight to the village exit.
Find the missing catalyst
If the first questioning gives no useful answer, inspect the area near the pile of bodies. Collect Brencis’s Banner, return to the same soldier and select it as the catalyst. Recasting without choosing the item repeats the wrong stage.
Gourd or banner: choose the story catalyst
ATH places the optional Drinking Gourd on the dirt path leading downhill from the body’s tree. For Brencis’s Banner, inspect the nearby ruined wooden structure beside the yellow flag and corpse pile. Confirm the item’s pickup prompt.
Return to the body: Anco is the soldier, while Anca is your companion. Select the banner catalyst and finish the memory dialogue. If the search objective remains, check whether you selected the gourd, left the conversation, or never collected the banner. The next expected objective is the village gate; collecting both objects is not established as a prerequisite.
Finish the prologue
ATH's gate interaction guide specifies standing close to the debris inside the archway, rather than facing the gate frame. Hold the displayed interaction button until the transition starts; a quick tap is not the described input. If no prompt appears, first check that the banner dialogue finished and the current objective requests clearing the gate. Let the following Anca conversation finish before checking the journal; merely seeing nightfall is not the completion check.
Follow Anca to the village gate and inspect the rubble-clearing prompt before confirming its time cost. After the transition, check for the open-world handoff. Continue with Court activities or Anca’s convent route.
Find the miller and the manumit lead
The Firebrand covers the flour sack, Stoneward Post entry and the timed conversation with Mert.