Background
Filed history
The Hollowbell Council presents itself as a continuous civic body, though seats, names, and portraits have changed throughout the thirty-seven years covered by Dorian Vane’s contract. Its official minutes describe the famine as resolved through prudent storage policy. The grain that appeared overnight is classified as a donation.
When the guardian shadow attached itself to Caro, the council converted a communal debt into an individual scandal. It nailed the tower closed, removed the bell-ringer line from municipal rolls, and instructed residents to describe Caro as on leave until even that explanation became inconvenient.
The ringing of the bell restored suppressed memories throughout Hollowbell. Current council members now disagree over who knew the truth, who inherited it, and whether inherited guilt has legal standing. The Bureau has opened separate inquiries for fraud, coercion, unlawful confinement, and aggressive misuse of the phrase no record exists.