Isaru keeps his claws pressed to the rune-line, feeling the mountain answer through stone and weather. Below, the valleys tremble in faint, distant pulses.
A shadow cuts through the grey. Talimaryl drops from the clouds and lands hard on the summit, golden edges flashing against wet slate.
Talimaryl
The valleys are shaking. Tell me the mountain is not doing this alone.
He sweeps one wing toward the far ridges, then the lower world, as if the whole range should be answer enough.
Isaru
The rune-line is still carrying strain from below.
Isaru does not move from the stone. The glow under his claws steadies, then sharpens, and the summit wind curls around him in a low, watchful ring.
Talimaryl
You feel it too. This is not a small unrest. Something deeper is pressing up through the mountain.
Talimaryl’s grave stare stays fixed on Isaru, waiting for a judgment the valley cannot afford to hear.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reaffirm indifference to the valley's plight
“Whether or not I can make a move depends if what is happening is the will of the world, or if something is trying to upset that balance.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
The rune-line under Isaru’s claws gives a single, clean pulse, then settles into a rhythm that does not match the wind. The summit stones hum with the mountain’s own slow answer, while a second tremor slips through from below, thin and uneven.
Isaru
The mountain is steady. Something else is pushing against it.
Far off, the valley haze flickers once with the quake, then fades. The warning light in the runes brightens, not in panic, but in recognition.
Talimaryl
You see it now, don't you. This is not the mountain straining alone.
Talimaryl lowers his wing and leans in, gaze hardening on the stone. The air around the summit goes still between the gusts, as if waiting for Isaru’s judgment.
Isaru
The strain is the mountain's. The rest is disturbance.
The rune-light holds its calm pulse. Below, the trembling continues, but now it reads as an intrusion against a stable will, not a wound in the peak itself.