The reflected passage drags the wall's false depth upward. Ahead, sinder's shadow stands where no body can reach, its edges shivering like wet flame.
Mara Venn
Sinder. Please, do not let The Presence see my face.
The marked bedroom door remains shut, but a thin seam of darkness has opened beneath it. A pale hand appears there, feeling across the floor without crossing the threshold.
The Artist
Mara Venn. The maid from the ledger. She vanished in 1891.
Mara Venn
I did not vanish. I was left here, listening. The thing in the passage wears every face that witnesses it.
Behind sinder, The Presence remains motionless. Ahead, her shadow turns its head toward the bedroom, though sinder does not. The pale hand retreats, leaving a wet crescent on the floor.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring Mara Venn into the boundary's protection
“can mara show her face to me without letting the presence see?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 62)
No. Mara cannot show her face to sinder without The Presence seeing it too, because the witness in the passage wears every face that is revealed to it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the Presence from seeing Mara Venn's face
“Can the boundary hide Mara from the Presence so her face can be seen?”
NO, BUT (Unlikely, rolled 38)
No. The boundary can keep Mara's face from the room, but it cannot hide her from the Presence itself. Any revealed face would still become another opening for the house to summon sinder.
− Scene Quest Removed
Bring Mara Venn into the boundary's protection
“can the boundary reach the bedroom to shield us from the presence?”
NO, BUT (VeryUnlikely, rolled 17)
No. The boundary stops at the bedroom threshold, leaving Mara outside its shelter and still exposed as a possible channel for the Presence to summon sinder. Nothing in the room changes.
“Can I protect Mara without exposing her face?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 17)
The black reflection behind sinder’s feet tightens into a narrow band of shelter, reaching across the threshold without requiring Mara’s face to be seen. Its protection can cover her while she remains turned away, but only if sinder deliberately brings her into that boundary.
Mara Venn
There is a way to stand beneath it without being seen.
“am I able to let the presence see my face instead of mara to protect her?”
NO, AND WORSE (Likely, rolled 100)
No. The Presence cannot be made to see sinder instead, because the boundary does not offer sinder's face as a substitute. Worse, any attempt to expose sinder would leave Mara's hidden face unprotected while the Presence uses the boundary itself to reach for her.
Mara Venn
No. It would see both of us through the same opening.
“can I use the reflection as an advantage to trick the presence to look at itself?”
YES, AND MORE (Unlikely, rolled 2)
Yes. The reflection can turn the Presence's gaze back upon itself, but the advantage is more dangerous than a simple deception: once it sees its own borrowed shape, the boundary closes around that image and makes the Presence the thing caught on the wrong side.
Mara Venn
Then it would have to look at itself first. If it does, the house loses its face.
“I ask Mara to turn the Presence against itself”
FAILURE (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
sinder
Mara, turn its gaze back on itself.
The black fold answers, but not cleanly. It reaches past Mara's hidden face and catches the Presence's borrowed outline in its surface.
Mara Venn
I cannot look at it. I cannot give it even that much.
The reflection buckles before the reversal completes. The outline stares into itself, then collapses inward, dragging the dark band across the threshold.
Mara is pulled fully beneath the boundary without turning. The bedroom door slams shut between her and the hall, and its latch settles on the protected side.
Mara Venn
It has me now. Not my face, not my voice. But the door will not open again.
Beyond the sealed door, something presses once against the wood. The black reflection holds it there, while Sinder's shadow remains fixed deep in the reflected passage.
Quest Complete
Prevent the Presence from seeing Mara Venn's face
✓ Quest Accepted
Fully contain the Presence within the boundary
“Is the Presence trapped behind Mara’s door?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 64)
Yes, but the Presence is trapped only within the boundary's reflection, not wholly contained by the door. Its pressure remains on the protected side, unable to cross, while Sinder's shadow holds the confinement from deep within the reflected passage.