Sava leads Diamond along the raised eastern causeway, her blue beads glowing toward the drowned shrine. Nox Grimm, Ettel, and Myra remain behind in Aurel, while Diamond travels with Sava alone.
Black water laps over the stones as the shrine’s sunken entrance rises ahead through reeds and mist. Its white doors stand half below the surface, their interlocking circles filmed with marsh silt.
Sava Merren
There it is. Keep to the raised stones, and do not step where the water reflects a doorway that is not truly there.
Beneath the reeds, an old bargain-stone awakens with a muted blue glow. Letters surface across its face, naming the toll: surrendered magic, freely given before the shrine will admit a traveler.
The stone’s light brushes Diamond’s shadowed aura, testing the boundary between his ordinary guise and the power concealed beneath it. The shrine doors answer with a faint scrape from within.
Sava Merren
That is Evara’s bargain-stone. It will know if you offer too much, too little, or something borrowed. I can wait here, but I cannot choose the toll for you.
Faint movement stirs beyond the drowned doors, slow and deliberate. The path toward Evara’s anchored altar lies open, but the awakened stone waits for Diamond to cross its boundary and surrender magic without revealing what he truly is.
“I had thought it. It was no problem. The magic will keep concealing when I am. Even if I go through it. Whatever her. Her anchor stone or not? It will not stop what's going to come to Evara. For once. Because I've got something up my sleeve that she doesn't know.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Diamond lets innate spellcasting draw raw power through the forbidden volume, using its old bargain-script to map a false, modest signature over the deeper force within him.
His infernal presence bends the shrine-light around him, while the emotional stone steadies every boundary. Bargain Sense separates the stone’s demand from the spirit waiting beyond it.
The feared reputation clings like a dark reflection, making the bargain-stone test him more sharply. Diamond’s careful magic turns that suspicion aside without offering borrowed power or exposing his true depth.
Sava Merren
The stone accepted you. I saw no toll leave you, but the shrine believes it received one.
The blue writing dims beneath Diamond’s hand. The drowned doors open inward, revealing a dry stair descending through veiled darkness, while Sava’s beads go still behind him.
Diamond crosses the boundary concealed, carrying the forbidden volume and the unrevealed advantage in his keeping. The shrine admits him without claiming his power, and Evara’s anchor waits below.
“I descend toward Evara’s anchored altar”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
Diamond descends the dry stair toward Evara’s anchored altar. Innate spellcasting sends raw awareness through each step, while the forbidden volume maps the old bargain-lines beneath the stone.
His infernal presence bends the shrine’s dim light around him, softening his passage and keeping his concealed power indistinct. The emotional weight of his feared reputation stirs the shadows, but the stair offers no resistance.
Diamond Oren.
The altar is directly below.
The forbidden volume turns its own pages, aligning symbols with the descending path. Diamond’s raw magic follows the revealed route, guiding his legendary agility over damp steps without disturbing the silt.
At the stair’s foot, a broad chamber opens beneath the drowned shrine. Black water circles a sunken altar, and pale bargain-lines converge there without touching him.
Evara
You have reached my anchor, concealed traveler. Your magic remains your own, yet the altar knows you stand within its bargain.
Diamond arrives before Evara’s anchored altar, his restraint intact and his deeper nature unrevealed. The forbidden volume rests open in his hand as the converging lines await his next choice.
“I start to speak to Evara I don't like the bargain you gave some people who for once. So here's another one that might, may be he. E1 that you might not like, but it's worth everyone's life for once and to keep you away for once. So 0. I give you one chance hence. Leave this place and never come back to this place ever again. Or else I will destroy you right here and now. Oh, because in all honesty. He it's the choice is yours to pick which one?”
SUCCESS (Superb Persuasion, rolled +1)
Diamond Oren.
Evara, I dislike the bargains you gave those people. Here is one you may dislike: leave this place and never return, or I destroy you here. The choice is yours.
Diamond’s innate spellcasting carries the ultimatum in raw force without ritual or component. The forbidden volume opens to the altar’s oldest bargain, while Bargain Sense exposes every hidden condition in Evara’s claim.
His infernal presence bends the chamber’s light toward him, influence pressing across the black water. Evara’s hunger recoils from the choice, but his feared reputation makes the altar test his threat with hostile echoes.
Evara
You offer destruction as though it were mercy. Yet your terms are clear, and your power is not a borrowed thing I can contest through this anchor.
The emotional weight of the bargain settles into a final balance. Evara’s presence withdraws from the shrine, abandoning the altar, the bargain-lines, and every claim upon those who entered before.
Evara
I leave this place, and I will not return to this shrine. Let the drowned stones remember that you chose the gentler ending.
The black water goes still. Evara’s mark fades from the altar, her presence is gone, and the shrine remains standing without a living payment claimed from anyone.
“I inspect the altar for lingering danger”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +2)
Diamond circles the abandoned altar, studying its carved channels and the black water around it. The shrine is quiet, with no movement beneath the surface and no returning presence in the chamber.
Innate spellcasting sends raw perception through the stone without ritual or component. The Forbidden volume turns to a matching page, its diagrams revealing how the old bargain-lines once converged here.
Bargain Sense separates the altar’s completed terms from dormant residue. It finds no active claim, hidden cost, or pathway capable of calling Evara back to this place.
Diamond’s feared reputation colors the inspection with hostile impressions, making harmless shadows resemble watchers. Careful perception distinguishes those echoes from the altar’s actual condition.
Diamond Oren.
The danger has ended, but the altar still remembers how the bargain worked.
The inspection succeeds completely. Diamond identifies the lingering trace as inert memory in the stone, unable to bind, summon, bargain, or affect anyone who enters the shrine.
The Forbidden volume records the finding in its shifting script. Beyond the altar, the dry stair and drowned entrance remain safe, leaving Diamond free to depart without carrying danger onward.
“I ask Sava about the next safe road”
SUCCESS (Superb Persuasion, rolled +1)
Diamond Oren.
Sava, what is the next safe road from here?
Diamond’s question carries across the causeway. His feared reputation makes Sava’s first look guarded, but Bargain Sense catches the practical weight of her concern and shapes his request as a fair exchange.
Sava studies the marsh, then the blue beads at her belt. Their glow steadies toward a narrow ridge of pale stones beyond the reeds, away from the drowned shrine.
Sava Merren
Take the northwestern ridge until you reach the three ash trees. From there, follow the dry ground west to Bellwether Crossing. It is the safest road out of these marshes.
Sava Merren
Avoid the old causeway and the sunken arches. The ridge is longer, but it stays above the water, and the watch-post at Bellwether Crossing still offers shelter to honest travelers.
Sava points out the ridge, the ash trees, and the distant crossing in sequence. The blue beads confirm each landmark, giving Diamond a clear safe road beyond the shrine.
Diamond Oren. leaves Evara’s anchored altar chamber behind and arrives at a portal location of his choosing.
“You use your magic just to collapse the anchor behind you. Who and use your magic just to open up a portal location that you wanted to go all for once.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Diamond arrives on a high stone terrace beneath a violet sky. Behind him, the portal folds shut, and the distant anchor’s last connection collapses into harmless sparks.
Wind moves through a forest of silver-leaved trees below. Their trunks rise from a valley filled with floating ruins, each broken tower slowly circling an unseen center.
Diamond Oren.
This world’s magic is old, broad, and not entirely asleep.
The portal’s collapse leaves a small advantage behind: the terrace now bears a faint return sigil only Diamond can perceive, stable enough to reopen once.
Below, one floating ruin suddenly turns upright. A column of green fire rises from its highest room, illuminating a doorway that was not there moments ago.
Across the terrace, wind chimes of bone and crystal begin ringing without wind. Their pattern forms three clear notes, followed by a voice from somewhere beneath the stones.
“Traveler,” the unseen voice calls, calm and distant. “If you came seeking a road between worlds, you have arrived at the one place that remembers every destination.”