Elowen
The earth does not obey the exiled, Yllamaris. What have you bargained away to make the very stone hold its breath?
Yllamaris
She looks at the suspended debris as if it were a mortal wound.
Elowen
Answer me. This is not the magic of the woods. This is cold, necrotic decay masquerading as strength.
Yllamaris keeps his hand steady upon the hilt of his blade, the violet runes pulsing in rhythm with the cavernous silence. He offers no words, only the weight of his gaze.
Elowen
If you cannot explain it, then you are not the one wielding that power. It is using you as a tether to this world.
Elowen takes a tentative step forward, her fingers brushing against the shattered wood of her bow, her eyes wide with a mix of fury and dawning realization.
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the cavern
“*I sigh - "oh Elowen... Our family, even if they've exiled me... has forgotten how to listen to the land - the forests breathe, the mountains groan, the seas complain. Magic is just asking things nicely to do things for us... We don't command them and they don't command us. We live in harmony... If you're so worried about it, answer me this... If I'm so evil and a heretic, why do the shadows come to kill me and why does our family wish to assassanate me without talking? Either kill me or let me be..."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Yllamaris
Oh Elowen. Our family, even if they have exiled me, has forgotten how to listen to the land. The forests breathe, the mountains groan, the seas complain. Magic is just asking things nicely to do things for us. We do not command them, and they do not command us. We live in harmony.
Yllamaris
Her eyes are shifting. The fury is losing its edge to doubt.
Yllamaris
If you are so worried about it, answer me this. If I am so evil and a heretic, why do the shadows come to kill me, and why does our family wish to assassinate me without talking? Either kill me, or let me be.
The cavern seems to grow colder as the last word leaves his lips. The glowing runes on the floor shift from a soft violet to a piercing, angry crimson, illuminating the fear on Elowen's face.
Elowen
He speaks of harmony while the very air here reeks of rot. Yet... he is hunted by the same shadows that haunt our borders.
Elowen
I do not seek your death, Yllamaris. But look at the ground. It is not answering to you. It is bleeding.
“"no... It's just different colored runes..." *I sigh, then cast mending on her bow, then start walking deeper into the cavern. "why follow me if you're not going to kill me? Why not report my location to... Your family... Are you trying to take me prisoner?"”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled +3)
Yllamaris exhales, and the crimson glare softens around the broken bow in Elowen's hands. A thread of pale magic knots the splintered wood and snapped string back together, clean and neat as fresh bone.
Elowen
That should not be possible.
Elowen
Then answer me plainly. If you are not driving this rot, why does it cling to you like a shadow?
Without waiting, Yllamaris turns from the runes and walks deeper into the cavern. The hanging debris trembles, then drifts apart for him as if an unseen current parts a river.
Yllamaris
Why follow me if you are not going to kill me? Why not report me to your family? Are you trying to take me prisoner?
The floor runes pulse once, bright enough to stain the stone walls red, and reveal a narrow passage ahead where the air moves colder than the rest of the cave. Something down there answers with a low, hungry thrum.
Elowen
I am not your jailer. But if that light is a tether, then we are both standing too close to its end.
“*I sigh... "leave... Tell our 'family' that I teleported away. Liven your life... Good luck." *I cast teleport for her to teleport out of the cavern. Once she's gone I'll continue down the caverns path”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled +1)
Yllamaris lifts a hand and speaks a parting spell. The air snaps white between him and Elowen, then folds inward like water over a stone.
Elowen
Wait, what are you doing?
Light tears open around Elowen, and she is yanked out in a heartbeat, her boots vanishing from the cavern floor.
The pressure in the chamber lurches. The crimson runes flare hard once, as if offended, then settle back into their sick glow.
Yllamaris turns alone toward the cold passage. The suspended stones drift aside for him, leaving the path bare.
Bram
No... where did she go?
From farther down the passage, that hungry thrum deepens into a steady pulse, as though something beneath the rock has noticed the emptying of the room.