The village falls hushed around Luna the Dragon Goddess, the opened path glowing softly between the offering bowls. Merrin sits beneath the rowan tree, hands folded tight over the burden he now keeps.
Merrin
So many names, and I am the one who must keep them from fading.
The Woman of the Torc lingers in the warm light near the bowls, her shape calmer now, as if the ruins themselves are breathing easier.
The Woman of the Torc
You have done well, Merrin. The names do not crush what honors them.
Merrin looks to Luna, then down at his own hands, as though weighing them against an unseen graveyard of voices.
Merrin
How do I carry them without letting one fall? I can guard a bowl. I can guard a door. This feels larger than both.
Luna the Dragon Goddess
...
The spirit’s light brightens at Luna's quiet answer, and Merrin eases a little, as if permission itself is a kind of shelter.
The Woman of the Torc
Then carry them as witnesses, not burdens. Let each name rest where it is known.
Merrin lowers his shoulders and glances toward the rowan roots, where the hidden shimmer waits like a secret that means no harm.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reassure Merrin that each name can rest safely
“I tell Merrin that his heart is a sanctuary where these names will never fade.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Luna lets the quiet settle, then lays two fingers over Merrin’s folded hands. The glow from the bowls warms the space between them.
Luna the Dragon Goddess
Your heart is a sanctuary. These names will not fade there.
Merrin
A sanctuary can be carried. Then I am not a grave, I am a home.
Merrin’s shoulders loosen at once. The burden in his face gives way to a tender, stunned calm, as if something heavy has finally been set down inside him.
The Woman of the Torc
Yes. That is the right keeping of them.
The torc in the bowls brightens with a steady, approving pulse, and the hidden shimmer on the wall resolves into a faint line of script that only now becomes readable.
Merrin
Then I can bear them. Not as a wound, but as a blessed chamber.
Quest Complete
Reassure Merrin that each name can rest safely