Frost tightens the wild field into silver blades. The rune scar beneath the split earth glows faintly, and ash spins in a low, uneasy coil around the opening.
The Gray-Cloaked Guard steps forward from the hush, armor clattering once, then stilling. His weapon falls from numb fingers into the grass.
Gray-Cloaked Guard
I have hunted the wrong quarry. The lies run deeper than the rot under your feet.
Bram tenses at once. Elowen and the Elder stare, struck silent by the guard's sudden surrender.
Gray-Cloaked Guard
I know where the city's secret archives are sealed. Records of the wound. Names of those who buried it. Let me lead you there.
Then a black shape peels out of the ash behind him, too fast and too low to be a man, driven by hunger and hatred. The Guard whirls too late, and the newcomer lunges for Yllamaris through the drifting frost.
Gray-Cloaked Guard
No, not now. If this thing reaches him, everything falls apart.
✓ Quest Accepted
Disable the creature without killing it