Kaelus carries the shallow wooden box from the vestry, its scraped letters faintly warm beneath his palms. Imogen follows into the rain-dark passage while Elian’s shade waits beyond the chapel boundary.
Kaelus
Nalia was here. I will not let the chapel reduce her to an offering again.
They descend into the burial hollow. Elias stands beside the dimmed mortar, where five silver staples glimmer weakly and a new name begins forming among the wounded lines.
Elias
The record accepts her name, but not quietly. Something is writing beneath it.
Fine letters surface through the mortar, each one accompanied by a soft pressure in the stones. Elian’s shade stops at the threshold, unable to enter, yet its gaze fixes on the box.
Elian Voss
Read the final clause. The vow has lost its authority over the dead, but truth still requires a price from the living.
The testimony completes itself: those who witness the truth must carry the forgotten name beyond the hollow, and refuse every bargain made in its shadow. Beneath the words, the sealed passage gives one slow knock.
✓ Quest Accepted
Carry Nalia’s name beyond the hollow
✓ Quest Accepted
Refuse every bargain made in Nalia’s shadow
“I lift Nalia’s box and swear to carry her name beyond the hollow.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
Imogen lifts Nalia’s shallow box from Kaelus’s hands. The scraped letters glow against her palms, warm as a living pulse beneath the rain-cold air.
Imogen
I swear to carry Nalia’s name beyond this hollow, and to refuse every bargain made in her shadow.
The five silver staples flare together. The sealed passage answers with a second knock, then falls silent as the name settles into the mortar.
Elias
The vow heard you. Not as a witness trapped here, but as a living bearer who can carry its truth into the world.
Elian Voss
Then let the record stand. Nalia was here, and no darkness may turn her into an instrument again.
A hairline crack opens across the hollow’s floor, revealing only packed earth beneath. The pressure in the stones loosens, and the chapel’s buried silence recedes.
Kaelus
I will walk beside you. If the old bargain reaches beyond this place, it will find her name already carried into the light.
“I carry Nalia’s name beyond the hollow”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +1)
Imogen carries Nalia’s box through the cracked passage and beyond the burial hollow. Rain touches the warm letters, but their glow does not fade.
Kaelus
The name has crossed the boundary. The hollow cannot claim it again.
Behind them, the five staples sink into darkness. The sealed passage gives no further knock, and the chapel’s oppressive silence breaks beneath ordinary rain.
Elias
Then the testimony is carried where Veyrath cannot revise it. Nalia belongs to the living record now.
Elian Voss
Witnessed beyond the stone, beyond the vow. That is enough to deny the old hunger its final shape.
At the chapel boundary, Elian’s shade thins into the wet air. His features remain clear for one last moment before the ghost turns toward the buried hollow.
Kaelus
Keep walking. Let every road carry her farther from the place that made her into an offering.
Quest Complete
Carry Nalia’s name beyond the hollow
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary