Before Odran can explain the next record, a sharp magical report cracks from Aurel. The wayhouse stones tremble, and a second pulse answers beneath the distant market.
Nox Grimm appears in the open doorway, carrying a forbidden volume bound in dark hide. His corpse-pale face glows with eerie green light as he studies Diamond and Odran.
Nox Grimm
The report came from Aurel. Your soldier and shadow-feline are still there, and the ward nexus is reacting to whoever entered it. They need help now.
The volume opens by itself. Its pages describe old crossings between worlds, each passage marked by a price paid by someone other than the caster.
Odran Pell
Nox Grimm. I thought your kind had no interest in Sarith’s remnants. Why bring that book here?
Nox Grimm
Because the next crossing may demand a living payment, and the old record names the one who arranged it. I know where to look, but I cannot reach Aurel quickly enough alone.
Another magical report tears across the distance from Aurel. Beneath the wayhouse, the tracking thread tightens toward the open doorway, while Nox holds out the forbidden volume and waits.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Ettel and Myra from the ward nexus reaction in Aurel
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who arranged the crossing that demands a living payment
“Can you show me a? A who requires the living payment somehow. Maybe there's something in that I could do. Who'd change that?”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Diamond Oren.
Show me the passage naming whoever demands the living payment. If I can identify it, perhaps I can change the price.
Nox Grimm
Take the volume. Its record calls the claimant Evara, the Tithe-Mother, an entity that feeds on willing life offered at a crossing.
Nox extends the forbidden volume. Diamond accepts it, and the dark hide chills his palm as green letters rise from the open page.
Innate spellcasting draws the writing into clear patterns without ritual or component. His infernal presence bends the surrounding light inward, hiding the examination from distant notice, while the emotional stone steadies each shifting translation.
Diamond’s feared reputation presses against the old magic, making the pages recoil from his touch, but restrained influence holds them open. The record yields its truth: Evara is not a god, but a parasitic crossing-spirit bound to bargains.
Odran Pell
Then the payment is not inevitable. Break the bargain’s wording, and the crossing must accept another price or fail.
The final annotation reveals the change Diamond sought: a living payment can be replaced by the caster’s own surrendered magic, leaving the traveler unharmed and Evara unfed.
Quest Complete
Identify who arranged the crossing that demands a living payment
+ New Item Acquired
Forbidden volume
Diamond Oren. leaves Lonely wayhouse beyond Aurel behind and arrives at Aurel.
“I return to Aurel and protect Ettel and Myra”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +1)
Diamond arrives beneath Aurel’s market square in a rush of displaced air. Above, rain drums on paving stones; below, the ward nexus flashes pale around Ettel and Myra.
Ettel stands at the circular chamber’s threshold with her sword drawn, shielding Myra from a widening ring of hostile light. The shadow cat crouches beside the central dais, fur bristling.
Ettel
Diamond! The nexus woke when the signal struck. Something is trying to claim the chamber through the western route.
Diamond crosses the chamber in a blur of controlled motion, placing himself between the luminous surge and his companions. The hostile ring breaks against his shadowed presence and folds harmlessly into the floor.
His arrival gives Ettel room to retreat behind him. Myra darts to safety at her side, while the ward’s western line reveals a hidden inscription: Evara’s mark, freshly awakened beneath Aurel.
Ettel
You protected us. Now we know the crossing-spirit reached Aurel, but it has not taken anyone. What do we do next?
Quest Complete
Protect Ettel and Myra from the ward nexus reaction in Aurel
Skill Upgrade: Survival Great→Superb