The path-like rune-line answers at last. Cold light crawls up the cliff, then snaps into a sigil that rings the summit like iron.
The mountain does not point at Isaru. It points at Jorren.
Jorren
No... it is taking me.
The stone flares again, and the guardian-mark settles over Jorren’s chest like a second shadow. His hand tightens on his blade, but the light holds him fast.
Talimaryl
It has chosen a successor.
Below the new sigil, older lines wake in answer, wrapping the ledge, the chamber below, the whole spire. Heavens Pillar is no longer simply guarded. It is setting a trap for whoever seeks to claim its power.
✓ Quest Accepted
Challenge the mountain’s choice of Jorren
“Jorren is hardly ready and can't control this power like I can.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Isaru does not lunge. He simply settles his weight, fixes on Jorren, and lets the mountain feel the judgment in him.
Isaru
He is not fit to wear this yet.
The guardian-mark shivers across Jorren’s chest, then tightens, as if the stone itself hears the refusal.
Jorren
If the mountain can choose, then it can be wrong.
Talimaryl
Or it can be revealing what only the mountain can bear to say.
Isaru answers by pressing a measured surge of storm force through the rune-line, and the binding loosens enough to show its seam. The trap remains, but its claim is challenged, not accepted.
Jorren
Then this is still a verdict, not a sentence.
Jorren draws a breath and does not move, but the light around him flickers uncertainly. The summit waits on Isaru’s next word.
Quest Complete
Challenge the mountain’s choice of Jorren