Worshipful Company of Sealwrights

Leadership: Oswy Hebden

Territory: Sealwright Hall

The contract-mages of Quillet. A Sealwright’s seal is a disc of coloured wax, pressed with the Company’s mark and a spoken promise, and it makes a written agreement hold: a sealed sale cannot be quietly undone and a sealed will cannot be quietly rewritten. Every serious contract in the vale is sealed by the Sealwrights, for a fee.

Goals and methods

The Company’s whole reputation rests on one boast: nothing in the Wax Vaults has ever been lost, altered or read without leave. It has now lost the most important page in the vale. The Master, Oswy Hebden, wants the thief found and the matter closed inside the Hall before the rest of the vale hears. The younger Sealwrights want to tell Queen Hesper everything at once. The Company’s elders want to find someone outside the Hall to blame.

How a Sealwright works

Apprentices learn letters, law and wax for seven years. Journeymen may seal ordinary contracts. Only Masters seal documents for the Crown. Every seal is recorded in the Hall’s registers, and every sealed document the Company holds is catalogued by shelf-mark in the Wax Vaults, where it is guarded by the vaults’ own ink.

Standing with the Wardens

Wary. The Wardens include Iveth Ammerly, whom the Company expelled, and they have seen the Company’s worst day at close range. Clemency Vare is on their side. The Master has decided to be.