Dawn fog hangs low over the mossy grove. Daisy’s fingers hover over Tenda’s bandaged arm, and the dark shimmer beneath his skin answers with a faint pulse. Zero waits at the tree line, watching the road. Rex lifts his head, ears forward, as if he catches a scent the others miss.
Daisy
This is not lingering damage. It is a signature, the same dark ki pattern tied to the Warlord, and it points back to Stratoa’s borderlands.
Tenda turns his arm in the light, the glow under the skin tightening like a warning. The lead is clear now, the corruption is not random. It connects his wound, the Warlord, and whatever secret waits in Stratoa.
Zero
Then we stop circling and hit the source before it moves again. If that stain is real, I want steel in its ribs.
Daisy
And if the village is left exposed while we run after it? That matters too.
Rex growls once toward the east, where the mist thins over the trail. Beyond the grove, the village sits vulnerable. Ahead lies the borderland trail and the chance to trace the dark ki to its origin. Tenda’s next choice decides whether the hunt begins now or the village holds the line first.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the Stratoa borderlands
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the cause of the dark shimmer
“I will follow the pulse of the dark ki toward the borderland trail.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)