The bog’s rhythmic pulse slows to a faint, uneven throb. Ozone and rot weigh down the air while Imogen holds the two broken silver shards above the mud.
Elias and Kaelus remain beside her, watching the peat around Malakor. The trapped man’s wet, labored breathing is the only sound for several long seconds.
Elias
It should have gone somewhere. Into him, into the water, anywhere but silence.
Malakor’s shoulders twitch beneath the hardened peat. His eyes stay open, fixed on the shards, but his mouth moves without producing words.
Kaelus
Do not assume silence means absence. The vow may be listening through what remains.
A thin thread of mist rises from the broken groove and curls toward Malakor’s chest. It stops short, suspended, as if waiting for permission.
Malakor
It is not in me. It is beneath me. Something else has opened its eyes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the awakened entity from the bog’s influence
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what has opened beneath Malakor
“I press my katana into the broken groove to sever what opened beneath him.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +2)
Imogen lowers the katana into the broken groove beneath Malakor. The blade meets something unseen, and the mist bends around its edge like smoke around a grave marker.
Malakor
Do not cut it. That opening is older than any of us.
Imogen presses down. The groove answers with a deep crack, and pale lines flare beneath the mud, tracing the shape of a buried threshold.
Elias
Keep the blade there. Sever the connection, not the stone.
The katana sinks cleanly through the unseen seam. The mist snaps inward, then collapses into the groove as the presence beneath Malakor is cut away from him.
Kaelus
It is closed. Whatever opened below him cannot reach through that path now.
Malakor exhales, and the hardened peat releases its pressure by a fraction. Beneath the blade, the groove turns dull and empty, leaving only cold mud and a silence that no longer listens.
Quest Complete
Sever the awakened entity from the bog’s influence