A week of rain and bad sleep sits between them. In the secluded park, Elena Vane closes her coat against the wind and draws a folded page from her pocket, like she is handling evidence, not paper.
She stops near Dallas Fontaine, weary but deliberate, and spreads the page on a bench under the dead lantern glow. Her finger lands on a name, then a second line, as if pinning down a fugitive.
Elena Vane
I finished tracing it. Your father was on the list too, Dallas. Not as a target. As a witness.
Dallas Fontaine
The ink is recent. The paper is older than the case.
Elena Vane
He signed off on a transfer. Dockside records, years back. A body came in injured, and went out under another name.
Elena looks up, jaw tight, watching for the blow that follows the truth. The park stays quiet, but the confession lands hard.
Elena Vane
I think someone used that transfer to build the life you thought you had. And they buried the first version of you under it.
She folds the page back up, not finished, just afraid of how much more the answer costs.
“I tell Elena. There is an expression beware when digging up the bones of the past. The past never dies and often resents being buried. I'm not interested if I was anyone else. Just who I am in the present. And our future together.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
Dallas lowers the paper and lets the silence breathe. The rain taps the leaves, but his voice stays level as he answers the confession with the one thing Elena can test, the present.
Dallas Fontaine
Beware of digging up the past. It never stays buried. I am not interested in who I used to be, only who I am now, and what comes after this.
Elena Vane
He is not looking away from it. He is not asking me to pretend.
Elena’s shoulders loosen by a fraction. She keeps the folded page in both hands, but the grip stops looking like a warning and starts looking like relief.
Elena Vane
That is the first honest thing anyone has said to me all week.
She glances toward the dark path, then back to Dallas, as if measuring whether the ground under them is still steady enough to stand on together.
Elena Vane
Then stay in the present with me. If the past is a trap, I want to know what we build instead.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stay in the present with Elena
“Burn the folded page in the rain to leave the past behind us for good.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +2)
Dallas folds the page once, then again, and feeds it to the rain. The edge darkens, softens, and gives way in his fingers.
The paper slips from his hand, useless now, and the wet grass takes the last of it before it can be saved.
Elena Vane
He is not protecting the lie. He is setting it down.
Elena watches the ashless ruin vanish in the drizzle, her mouth tight with something that looks like fear easing into trust.
Elena Vane
Thank you. I needed to see that you could do it.
The dead lantern above them hums faintly. Beyond the trees, the park stays still, while the space between them feels less crowded.
Elena Vane
Stay here a moment longer with me.
Quest Complete
Stay in the present with Elena