Dust swirls at the graveyard gate as Ilyra Venn, a weary adult woman, lean-framed and sharp-faced, with a small scar through one eyebrow with sun-browned skin and tangled dark hair, stumbles inside. Her torn herald's sash hangs over a travel-stained gray cloak, and she grips a silver bell without a clapper.
Ilyra Venn
I fled the mountain settlement before dawn. Every house stood open, every hearth cold. A herald came through the pass, and afterward, no one remained.
Ilyra stops beside the sealed grave. Solenne's dawn-light still crowns the stones, while the unconscious charlatan priest lies beyond the fading ring, breathing shallowly.
The Voice Beyond the Rift
A herald does not empty a settlement. It prepares a road. You have carried its first bell here.
The woman pales and turns toward the stones. Her clapperless bell begins to ring without sound, each vibration sending pale cracks through the grave's sealed surface.
Ilyra Venn
No. It was silent when I took it. I thought silence meant the herald could not find me.
The cracks brighten beneath the silver bell, branching toward the place where the dead once stood. Solenne's halo dims for a heartbeat, and the grave answers with a second, soundless toll.
Save the mountain settlement from the herald
Discover what emptied the mountain settlement