Saint-Maur archive room after midnight: dust, lace curtains, stacked correspondence boxes, and a locked central cabinet. Candlelight is warm but thin.

The archive's portrait wall and family record table.

Heléne lays out tools, old guild receipts, and written favors across the archive table.

The archive room becomes a frantic workspace.

Heléne attacks the locked drawers using called-in tools.

Inside the first cabinet: ribbons, account books, estate correspondence, and sealed packets.

Hours pass in the same archive room; papers now carpet the floor.

The first hidden packet reveals a love letter from Odette to A.W.

Heléne reads deeper into the love letter.

Heléne checks seals, dates, and initials against family records.

Heléne checks the date against her mother's birth record.

A second hidden space is found behind the cabinet backing.

Heléne opens the second packet and immediately sees a different hand from Odette's.

The threat letter explains the demand for a future collectible debt.

Heléne realizes how the letters reduced her mother to proof and collateral.

Tempted, Heléne opens the ledger to Odette's name.

Heléne nearly crosses out Odette's name, then refuses the cost.

Heléne reads Aurel's offer in the archive room.

Heléne dissects Aurel's offer for traps.

The old Wassen debt in the ledger makes its pull known again.

Heléne chooses what evidence to take to Wassen.

Heléne faces Odette and Mireille's portraits before leaving the archive.

Dawn touches the Saint-Maur archive as Heléne leaves for Wassen on her own terms.