The shrine goes still. The altar’s unstable script gutters under a breath of cold, and the stranger in snow-dusted furs pauses in the doorway, cowl low over their face.
Torix stands near the altar with Ardent Vale at his side, the cracked stone and drifting dust caught in a sudden hush. The stranger lowers one gloved hand, empty, as if to prove no harm.
Neris
Torix Reincor. I hoped I would find you before the mountain finished lying to you.
Neris
Do not touch the altar again. The second line is a trap, not an answer.
Ardent Vale
Someone else knows the rite. Good. Better than good, if they can name the trap.
The stranger steps closer, boots soft on old frost, and the cowl tilts toward the runes without fully showing their face. Their voice stays calm, but watchful.
Neris
Brother Oren binds more than flesh. He ties memory to mountain law. If you want Ardent free, you need the seal’s true witness, and I know where it is hidden.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the stranger’s true intentions
✓ Quest Accepted
Find the seal’s true witness
“Torix squeaks with a start at the appearance of the stranger, gripping his keyblade close to his chest. He is so much more confused now. "I...who are you...how do you know my name?" His blinks is slow, jittery like a faun new to the world. Still, only a breath passes before he shake his head. "No, that's...unimportant right now. You know of these sigils? Then, perhaps you can help Sir Ardent as well! Please, I pray if know know something to help us rid him of this curse then speak now. It...it looks to pain him in ways I am unsure my healing Arts could mend."”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Torix’s startled grip tightens on the keyblade, then eases as the stranger’s warning settles into meaning. The cowl cannot hide the steadiness in their posture, or the fact that they have come prepared to speak, not strike.
Torix Reincor
I... who are you? How do you know my name?
He shakes off the first question before it can grow teeth, lifting his gaze from the stranger back to Ardent and the altar. The crack in the stone still sheds pale dust, but Torix’s voice turns careful and earnest.
Torix Reincor
No, that is not important right now. You know these sigils, then help us. If you know something that can free Sir Ardent, speak now.
At the plea, the stranger’s shoulders lower by a fraction. The doorway light catches frost on their furs as they glance once toward the mountain dark outside, then back to the runes.
Neris
That is why I came. Brother Oren did not carve a curse, he anchored a lie. The true witness to the seal is hidden here in the shrine, and if you take it, the binding can be broken.
Ardent Vale
Then tell us where to look. I would rather bleed years than drift another night under his spell.
The stranger lifts one gloved hand and points toward the altar’s base, where the unstable script seems to tremble around a seam in the stone. The answer hangs between them, plain at last, and waiting for Torix to choose whether to pry it open.
Quest Complete
Learn the stranger’s true intentions
“"I must ask, first, I and I do apologize for this, but who or what is a 'true witness'? I am loathe to say I have been here in this...place, this world even for mere minutes. A small moment of clarification is all I ask...please, if that is not too bold of me." He shuffles his feet and shifts in place, hoping not to upset the stranger nor Ardent.”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +0)
Torix Reincor
I... beg pardon, but what is a true witness? I have only just arrived in this world, and a little clarity would help me.
Torix shifts his feet on the shrine stone, the bladed key dipping a little as he waits. The stranger does not bristle at the question, only studies him with a calmer sort of attention.
Neris
A witness is what the seal remembers. Not a priest, not a victim, but the thing that saw the oath made and still bears its shape.
Ardent Vale
Then the shrine itself has been keeping score all this time... and Oren lied to us about what mattered.
The stranger lowers their hand from the altar seam and turns, cloak whispering softly, to face Torix more directly. Frost clings bright at their cuffs, and the mountain dark beyond the doorway presses behind them like a held breath.
Neris
Brother Oren hid the witness here because it would expose him. If you want the binding broken, you need the shard beneath the altar. It will answer only to someone the seal has not already claimed.
Ardent Vale
Then we are agreed. Torix, if you take it, I will stand ready.
“Torix begins to reach towards the seal, hesitating for a pregnant pause. "Stranger, you have not given us your name yet...so, I ask mystery traveller, if taking this seal will harm Ardent further..." He uses the pause to study the runes on the seal carefully. He trust the stranger's words, yes, but not know the nature of the curse yet plagued him with concerns for Ardent.”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled -3)
Torix Reincor
Stranger, you have not given us your name yet. And, if I take this seal, will it harm Ardent further?
Torix leans in at last, key lowered but not forgotten, and studies the shivering script where it clings to the altar base. The runes are old, layered, and meanly arranged, with one line scratched fresh across the seam like a warning.
Torix Reincor
The binding is anchored below the crack, not in the prayer marks above it.
Neris
Names can wait. The shard answers to the seal, not to me. If you disturb it cleanly, Ardent bears only the strain of release. If you break it wrong, the shrine may lash back.
A pale grit sifts from the altar edge as Torix’s fingers hover close. The seam breathes cold through the stone, and beneath the dust he catches the shape of a slender split object, lodged deep where the altar was made to hide it.
Ardent Vale
Then do it carefully. I can take pain if it ends this curse, but I will not have your hands ruined for my sake.
The stranger does not move to help, only watches Torix with a steady, measuring stillness that feels less like caution than judgment. Outside the doorway, mountain wind groans through the shrine, as if something in the stone has begun to listen.
Quest Complete
Find the seal’s true witness
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Great→Superb
“Torix nods, trying to smile his brightest at the two. "You are kind, but-" he inhaled deeply, an almost uncharacteristic determination crossing his face, "-I do not wish or desire the harm of others. If I am harmed, then so be it, so long as your pain is alleviated." After steeling himself, he shall remove the seal as carefully and meticulously he can, all the while praying and weaving whatever magic he can to spare Ardent the pain and suffering a d take it into himself.”
SUCCESS (Great Knowledge (Occult), rolled +3)
Torix Reincor
I do not wish harm on either of you. If the curse must bite someone, let it be me.
Torix steadies his breath and lays both hands at the seam. The hidden shard answers at once, rising with a thin cry of stone on stone.
Cold lashes up his arms, but he keeps his focus and pulls the shard free in one careful motion. The altar shudders, then goes still.
A black thread of backlash leaps for Ardent, and Torix's spell drinks it in. The chill floods into him instead, leaving Ardent suddenly upright, no longer clenched by the curse.
Ardent Vale
It is gone. By the mountain, it is gone.
The stranger's calm breaks at last. They step back from the altar, eyes fixed on the freed shard in Torix's hand, as if it has confirmed something they expected all along.
Neris
Good. Then listen closely, Torix Reincor. Brother Oren did not build this rite to bind Ardent. He built it to hide a door, and you have just given me the key to it.
+ New Item Acquired
The hidden shard
“Torix clenched the shard much more tightly, his wings folding as if to shield himself as the stranger's words fill his body with an instinctual nervousness. He steps back, looking between he and Ardent, trying to suppress the trembling at the newfound fear. "I...I know not what you...mean." He swallows hard, that previous courage gone with the howling wind. "You...you still...still have yet to explain who y-you are...and how...you k-k-know who I am." Something in his body is screaming at him to protect the shard for the time being.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Torix steps back with the shard cupped tight in both hands, and the shrine seems to widen around the three of them. Ardent watches in silence, still unstruck by the old curse, while the stranger holds their ground below the altar lip.
Torix Reincor
I... I know not what you mean. You still have yet to explain who you are, and how you know me.
Neris
Fair. I am no monk of this mountain, only a witness who arrived too late. As for your name, Torix Reincor, the shard answered you. That is how I knew to speak it.
The stranger lowers one hand, careful and open. Ardent shifts nearer to Torix, not to intervene, but to stand witness to the answer.
Ardent Vale
If he speaks plain, then let him speak all of it. I would know who dragged me into Brother Oren's lie, and why Torix was brought to this altar at all.
Neris
Because the shard is a key, and keys draw doors. Brother Oren hid this one beneath the shrine, but not from me. I came hunting the thing it opens.
A thin draft lifts frost from the stone seam. Far below, the mountain groans once, deep and old, as if remembering the shape of the thing sealed within it.
Neris
Let me see the shard, and I will show you the path to the true witness behind Oren's rite. If you want that answer, Torix Reincor, you must decide whether to trust my hands.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine the stranger's true intentions
“"It is no matter of trust. Had I not trusted you, I would have read the second inscription. I would have raised my blade to you...rather...." He shifts once again, clearly nervous, "Something deep in my very being is telling me that there is something amiss. Something....important hanging in there air." He looks to the ground, his chest clearly riding and falling a pace too quickly before looking up to Ardent as if pleading for some kind of answer or guidance. "If what you say is true, then show us. You need not possess the shard to prove your words, no? Travel with us and show us of what you speak."”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -2)
Torix Reincor
It is no matter of trust. Had I not trusted you, I would have read the second inscription. I would have raised my blade to you... rather.
Torix does not offer the shard. He lowers his voice instead, and the mountain chill seems to gather around the words. The shard remains tight in his hands, bright against his pale grip.
Torix Reincor
Something deep in me says there is something amiss, something important hanging in the air.
He glances down, breath riding too fast, then looks up toward Ardent as if asking for footing he cannot quite find alone.
Torix Reincor
If what you say is true, then show us. You need not possess the shard to prove your words. Travel with us, and show us what you mean.
Neris
Then I will. I wanted the shard for the door it wakes, not to take it from you. Brother Oren hid the true witness below this shrine, and I mean to lead you to it before his lies can close again.
Ardent Vale
He is scared, but not of me. That is something.
The stranger's hand lowers at last, and their shoulders ease by a fraction. But the open seam gives a small, cold hiss, as if the altar itself has heard enough and begun to stir.
Quest Complete
Determine the stranger's true intentions