Adventure of Celia Graves 2

Several days after leaving Lord Vale’s manor, Celia reaches the Black Bell Shrine. The neglected sanctuary crouches beside the road, its cracked bell dark with rain and age.

Coins glimmer among the weeds where mourners have left offerings for the unburied dead. No fresh grave marks the ground, yet the air carries a faint chill beneath the afternoon wind.

A middle-aged woman with a lean build waits beneath the bell. Her ash-brown hair is hidden by a gray veil, and a weathered gray robe hangs from her narrow shoulders; a black cord circles one wrist.

The woman raises one gloved hand, revealing a sealed message marked with black wax. Its sigil resembles no sign Celia has seen among the Death God’s rites.

Behind Maevra, the Black Bell shifts against its cracked mount without ringing. The coins at the shrine’s threshold tremble once, then lie still as she waits.

Maevra places the sealed message in Celia’s waiting hand. The black wax is cool against her palm, bearing its unfamiliar sigil without resisting her touch.

Celia breaks the wax and unfolds the stiff, water-stained parchment. The writing within is narrow and deliberate, made with dark ink that has not faded.

The summons reads: “To Celia Graves, Death Witch and breaker of the plague-heart. Come to the Barrow March before the next black bell. The buried dead are waking beneath sealed ground.”

A second line bears no signature: “Bring no priest, judge, or lord. Bring the hand that can distinguish corruption from the living, for the first grave has already opened.”

The cracked Black Bell shifts overhead. This time it gives one muted note, and several offering coins turn face-down in the weeds.

Reach the Barrow March