The restored silver ward gleams around the settled ash. Not one grain stirs as a small figure rises from its center, soot-dark hands clasped before them.
Ember-bright eyes open beneath a crown of ash-gray hair. The songbook in Issac's grasp pulses once, answering a voice that seems to come from several throats at once.
The Ashen Child
Do not fear the circle. It remembers who mended it.
The Tavern Bard
I have sung every tale carved into this tavern's beams. I have never seen you before.
The Former Mentor reaches beneath their cloak and closes their fingers around a small, sunken relic. Its pale metal catches the wardlight, but they do not draw it.
The Ashen Child
The book chose Issac because the seal is hungry. I can show them how to quiet it, if you let me.
✓ Quest Accepted
Ensure the tavern's safety from the Ashen Child
“I make a protective bubble around it”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -1)
Issac raises their uninjured hand. Mana gathers without flame or thunder, a clear sphere swelling outward from their palm.
Therefore, the sphere settles around the Ashen Child and the ward's inner ring, shielding the figure from the tavern beyond.
The Ashen Child
The hunger cannot cross this kindness.
The silver ward brightens in answer to Issac, its restored sigils flowing around the bubble like a quiet crown.
The Tavern Bard
Then the tavern is safe, for as long as your shelter holds. I am Maelin, keeper of this house, and I swear no one here will break it.
The Former Mentor
Do not mistake containment for mercy alone. The seal below was built to feed on names, and that book now knows yours.
The Ashen Child
I am not the hand that made the seal. I am what it kept inside. When the pale relic wakes, take the book beyond these walls.
The bubble remains clear and unbroken. The ash lies still, the hearth burns steadily, and every sheltering soul in the Cindered Lyre remains beyond the child's reach.
Quiet the hungry seal
Quest Complete
Ensure the tavern's safety from the Ashen Child