Celia returns to the manor’s gatehouse sickroom beneath a clear morning sky. The three villagers remain fevered on straw pallets, while Maurice secures the doorway and Tomas assists the healer.
Elianor, now dressed in well-kept Vale finery, kneels beside the nearest patient. Her glowing hands draw the breathborne curse into a pale gold pattern that fades before reaching the heart.
Elianor Vale
It answers me, Celia, but only for a moment. I can hold it back, not drive it from them.
The gatehouse healer steadies a lamp while Tomas changes the patients’ damp cloths. Maurice watches the room, his broad frame blocking the open passage without disturbing the work.
Elianor’s golden radiance falters. Beneath all three villagers’ tongues, the same black mark briefly appears, then fades as their fevered breathing continues.
Maurice Headsman
That mark was not in the manor’s walls. Whatever answers her power lies beyond this place.
The Gatehouse Healer
Their hearts still resist it. Celia, can your sight tell us where the curse is reaching from?
“I examine the black mark beneath a villager’s tongue”
SUCCESS (Superb Medicine, rolled +4)
Celia lifts the villager, a young adult man with a lean build, brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and a sweat-darkened beige shirt,’s jaw and draws the lamp close. Beneath his tongue, the black mark emerges as a branching stain around a pinprick of pale gold.
Her plague-sight passes through it. The stain is not rooted in flesh, but is a sealed sigil lodged against the breath passage, pulsing in time with the curse.
Celia Graves
The mark carries the curse inward, but it can be removed before it reaches the heart.
With careful pressure and sanctified force, Celia draws the sigil free as a thread of black vapor. It dissolves above the patient’s mouth, leaving no wound.
The Gatehouse Healer
His breathing has eased. Look, the color is already leaving his face.
The other two marks answer the first with faint pulses. Celia now recognizes the pattern: each sigil can be lifted through the mouth before the corruption reaches the heart.
Maurice Headsman
Then we have a cure, not merely a delay. Tell us what hands and lamps you need.
“I remove the sigils from the other villagers”
SUCCESS (Superb Medicine, rolled +3)
Celia moves to the second pallet and lifts the villager’s jaw. Sanctified force threads beneath the tongue, finding the black sigil without tearing living flesh.
The mark slides free as a narrow coil of vapor. It breaks apart above the patient’s lips, and his strained breathing settles into an even rhythm.
She removes the final sigil with the same precise pressure. Black vapor vanishes in the lamp flame, leaving both villagers warm, conscious, and free of the inward-pulling curse.
The Gatehouse Healer
All three are clear. Their fevers are already falling, and none bears a wound where the marks rested.
The dissolved sigils leave behind a faint ash pattern on the lampglass. Celia recognizes its repeated lines as a directional sign pointing east, beyond the manor’s lands.
Maurice Headsman
You gave them breath and a road to follow. If that sign marks the curse’s reach, we know where to search next.
Elianor Vale
Then the manor is no longer its vessel. The living here can recover while we carry this warning beyond the hill.
Find the source of the eastward curse
Leave the manor with the eastward warning
Quest Complete
Bring forth the living
Skill Upgrade: Medicine Superb→Legendary