The lower cache sanctum throbs with violet strain. Behind the threshold, a seam of light crawls across the door, and fresh dust trembles from the lintel.
Araneidan Siranteos steps out of the gloom in midnight-purple robes, her Weaver limbs unfolding like a crown of knives. Her many eyes fix on Eden and Nazareth at once.
Araneidan Siranteos
So the seal still remembers me. How dutiful, how late.
Nazareth tightens his grip on the ledgers. The Archivist recoils a half-step, gaze flicking between mother and father as the chamber's glow intensifies.
Araneidan Siranteos
That bargain was never yours alone to name. You opened the first wound, and I kept it from devouring the house.
The sanctum door gives a deep, grinding shudder. Araneidan lifts one hand toward it, not to strike, but to claim the failing seal as if it belongs to her.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the true nature of the wound
✓ Quest Accepted
Force Nazareth to reveal the darker secret
“Step between Nazareth and Araneidan to demand he explain the wound now.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Eden steps between them anyway, halberd angled low as a living barrier. The floor shivers under her boots, but her stance holds.
Nazareth does not move. He only tightens the bundle of ledgers against his chest, eyes fixed past Eden toward Araneidan.
Eden Siranteos
Explain the wound. Now.
Araneidan Siranteos
The wound is older than your crown, child. It is the hollow your line was taught to call duty.
Nazareth Siranteos
No. Tell her the rest.
Araneidan Siranteos
We did not merely seal a hunger. We fed it our years, our strength, our heirs, so the barrier would keep the dark below Siranteos from climbing free.
The sanctum door groans louder, violet light spilling in broken seams across the stone. Dust slides from the lintel in thin streams.
The Archivist
So that is the bargain. Not shame, but sacrifice built into the blood.
Quest Complete
Learn the true nature of the wound
Quest Complete
Force Nazareth to reveal the darker secret