Background
Filed history
Caro Hollowbell inherited the town bell from six generations of Caprakin keepers. Every dusk, he climbed the wet stone tower and rang the old bronze warning over the roofs. The townspeople said it kept wolves out of the streets. His family knew the older truth: the bell did not repel the thing in the valley. It reminded the thing that the town still remembered its debt.
During a winter of failed crops, Hollowbell’s council accepted help from a courteous stranger. Caro inherited the bell, the resulting debt, and a guardian shadow that was never meant to belong to one person. The bargain worked. Storehouses filled. Children slept. Then the guardian began following Caro instead of the town, and the bell began ringing before he touched the rope.
Ashamed and afraid of what an investigation would reveal, Caro hid in the abandoned belfry until Nelly found him. He is defensive, exhausted, and stubbornly protective of neighbors who allowed him to carry their secret alone. The Bureau classifies him as a witness because Nelly amended the cover herself.