The royal road remains empty as Silas and Orivex move toward the trees. Silas keeps low, favoring his scraped shin, while moonlight silvering the stones leaves them unseen.
At the woodland edge, Silas’s shadow stretches across the road in a direction his body does not follow. Its black outline points away from the palace.
Silas
The shadow is moving without me.
The distortion lengthens, breaking into a trail of dark marks that crosses the moonlit ground toward deeper wilderness. Each mark fades, then another appears farther ahead.
Orivex
Silas, stop. That shadow is not following your feet.
Orivex spreads his small wings and plants himself beside Silas, bronze scales dim beneath the trees. His gaze tracks the impossible trail rather than the empty road.
Orivex
The curse has found a path beyond the palace. Something far away is reaching for you through it.
The final black mark settles among the roots, pointing into the forest. Behind them, the road stays silent, leaving the choice suspended between moonlight and trees.
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover the source of the curse's reach
✓ Quest Accepted
Break the necromancer's hold on Silas
““That bastard is here too…ha…what does he even want from me this time?! Hasn’t he already taken enough from me?” *I glanced at the dragon, then follow the trail* “it won’t be safe. If you want to follow, hide behind me.””
SUCCESS (Great shadow sense, rolled +0)
Silas
That bastard is here too... What does he even want from me this time? Hasn't he already taken enough from me?
Silas glances at Orivex, then follows the black marks beneath the trees. His shadow sense catches their fading rhythm, while keen senses find each root and twig before they betray him.
Silas
It won't be safe. If you want to follow, hide behind me.
Orivex
I will follow. I will stay behind you, Silas.
Silas slips between the trunks, keeping the trail in sight. The curse pulls his shadow sideways, and his impulsive thief's urge drives him after it before caution can settle.
A dead branch cracks beneath his heel. The sound carries through the forest, a clear trace left by the pursuit, but Silas reaches the trail's end in a moonless clearing.
Orivex
The marks end here. Something is waiting in the dark.