The market hushes as jox stands over a cornered bandit, his blade poised in the salt-bright air. Merchants watch from behind stacked spice crates, and the senators' guards hold a hard ring around the vault doors.
The low-ranking bandit swallows, backing into a brass lantern post. His eyes keep flicking past jox, toward the sealed vault beneath the plaza.
Then the vault doors groan open. Four senators emerge in dark silk, and with them come the very figures jox remembers from the night of ash and blood.
Valerius
Put the weapon down, child. We did not come to fight you.
The bandit at jox's feet laughs once, thin and terrified, then goes still as the nearest guard levels a spear at his throat.
The Second Senator
He was expected. That is why the doors were left unbarred.
Cold recognition strikes through the crowd, through the guards, through jox's line of sight. The leaders do not advance. They wait, as if this meeting has already been written.
Valerius
Jox, if you want the truth about your parents, come closer. If you want vengeance, take another step and see what it costs.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confront the hooded leader
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the truth about Jox's parents
“use my dark magic to make them speak”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -1)
Jox answers with a thread of black power, thin as ink in water. The plaza light seems to dim around his outstretched hand.
The hooded leader stiffens. The second senator’s calm cracks, just enough for fear to show.
Valerius
Enough. Speak of the night at Briar Ash, and name the hand that gave us your mother.
The Second Senator
No. Stop, or the seal answers.
The trapped bandit gasps as the dark force catches in his throat. A sharp pulse of pain lances back through jox’s palm, and the lantern flame gutters black.
Valerius
Your parents were not butchered for coin. They were taken because they carried a mark we could not let the world see.
Valerius
Come to the vault, and we will tell you the rest, or stand there and choke on half-truths.
The air between them tightens into a pale ring of sigils, half-formed and waiting.
“i start awakning my powers and torturing the bandits leader for revenge”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +2)
The black thread in jox's hand blooms wider, and the pain in the leader's voice turns thin and shaking. The plaza hush deepens as the sigil ring brightens between them.
Valerius
Good. Feel that pull. Briar Ash was not random slaughter, it was a harvest.
The Second Senator
Enough. If he learns the full seal here, we all burn.
The senator snaps both hands together, and the pale sigils lock into a cage of light around jox and the vault mouth.
Valerius
Choose, then. Take our bargain, or be buried under the same truth that killed your bloodline.
The trapped bandit drops to his knees, coughing, while the lantern flame turns ink-dark over the square.
Valerius
Release the seal, and I give you one name from that night.
Quest Complete
Confront the hooded leader
New Gift: Arcane Insight