The grove opens onto the Starlit Court like a held breath released. Silver columns rise through hanging mist, and a balcony of pale stone overlooks the shifting Feywild sky. The air hums with old celestial power.
King Asterion Vaelor stands at the rail, tall and still, his star-crown catching the light. His pale eyes settle on Eladrin, then on the glowing mark in his palm, as if he has been expecting this exact moment.
Eladrin
Eladrin holds up the burned seal and the copied records. He demands the Court answer for the forged prophecy and the memories it hid.
Liora Asterwyn
Liora steps forward beside him, voice sharp and steady. She says the lie is visible now, and the Court can either confess or be exposed.
Caelir Thorne
Caelir keeps one hand near his sword and watches the balcony. He mutters that if Asterion wants the truth buried, he picked the wrong day.
Kaelith
Kaelith lifts his gaze to the glowing mark and goes pale. He says the purge is waking, and if the truth does not surface now, the mechanism will strip Eladrin’s memory clean before dawn.
King Asterion Vaelor
Asterion folds his hands, calm as winter starlight. He asks who taught Eladrin that the archive remembers wrongly, and whether he has come seeking justice, or a new version of fate.
“I meet Asterion's gaze and hold up my burned palm. “I came for the truth, not another fate chosen for me. Seralyth forged my prophecy, the archive preserved her name, and Liora and Caelir carry memories that no longer agree. Now Kaelith says this mark will strip my memory before dawn.” I step toward him. “You asked who taught us the archive remembers wrongly. You did not ask whether it does. Tell me what you know.””
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +0)
Eladrin climbs one pale step into the court’s light, burn mark raised like proof, records angled toward the King. The sigil on his palm flares, and the silver mist seems to thin around the words he has already spoken.
King Asterion Vaelor
Asterion’s gaze does not leave the evidence. "Seralyth taught the archive to lie, and the lie was kept inside the Court. That much is now plain."
King Asterion Vaelor
He turns one hand, measured and cold. "The archive remembers wrongly because someone made it remember so. I know the hand that placed the ward, and I know the names that profited from silence."
Liora Asterwyn
Liora’s chin lifts, fierce with vindication. "Then say it before your own terrace hears you deny it later."
Caelir Thorne
Caelir’s jaw tightens. "If you know the hand, Asterion, stop circling it."
King Asterion Vaelor
Asterion’s eyes settle on Eladrin’s burned palm. "I know enough to name a breach within my Court. Until I decide whether you are witness or contagion, you remain under my word, not beyond it."
The terrace falls into a taut, listening stillness. For a breath, the King’s attention becomes shelter and restraint at once, and every path forward waits on his next decree.
“I close my burned hand around the sigil's light. “Witness or contagion can wait. Kaelith says this mark will take my memory before dawn, and you just admitted that you know who placed the ward and who profited from the silence. Name them, Asterion. Then tell me how to stop the purge.””
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Eladrin closes his burned hand around the sigil’s light, and the glow gutters into his skin instead of spilling outward. The terrace shivers with a hush of listening courtsfolk beyond the mist, but the King holds still.
Eladrin
Witness or contagion can wait. Kaelith says this mark takes my memory before dawn, and you know who placed the ward. Name them, Asterion. Tell me how to stop the purge.
King Asterion Vaelor
Then hear it plainly. Seralyth did not work alone. The ward was taught by Archivist Seralyth, sealed with Vaerith’s old corrective script, and protected by two ministers who feared what your prophecy would expose.
King Asterion Vaelor
To halt the purge, the mark must be anchored to a living witness before moonrise, then broken with the same silver ink that wrote it. Without that binding, the sigil will keep stripping what it can claim.
Liora Asterwyn
So the Court built a lie, then hid it inside memory itself.
Caelir Thorne
And if the King can name the hands, he can stop pretending this is only Seralyth’s crime.
King Asterion Vaelor
I am done pretending. Eladrin, take sanctuary under my word, or refuse it and let the Court mark you as an unstable force.
The sigil sears once, sharp as a needle under the skin, and a ribbon of silver flakes from the records onto the stone between them.
Quest Complete
Learn who taught the archive to remember wrongly
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great