Alexander crosses the split bronze threshold, crystal clenched in his scorched hand. Cold vapor coils around his boots as the black flame paints the vaulted sanctum in restless shadow.
Before the dragon-carved brazier, Falstaff Flameheart turns from the ancient wards. His gaze fixes on the spreading sigil beneath Alexander's skin, then on the crystal pulsing toward the sealed chamber.
Falstaff Flameheart
Do not bring it closer to the wards. That vessel is no mere phylactery. It is a conduit, and Malrec has threaded it through my bloodline.
Falstaff raises one hand, not touching Alexander, while the brazier answers with a low crimson glow. Fine lines of light crawl from the crystal across the floor, tracing a path toward the sanctum's oldest seal.
Falstaff Flameheart
Destroy it here, and the unfinished ritual may pour through the link into you. Yet the mark reveals a second truth. Malrec is using the vessel to draw a new heir into the design.
The crystal pulses once. For an instant, the warded stone shows a ghostly map of Rosewood beneath the city, ending at a buried chamber marked with the same sigil now spreading across Alexander's palm.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the crystal’s connection to Alexander