Adventure of Lucien Draken 1

Boots hammer the warded stair. Black light bleeds through the cracks, turning the hospice stones cold and colorless.

Sister Maelis presses both palms to the silver basin. A hidden moonstone door unfolds behind it, revealing a steep stair descending into blue darkness.

The exposed seven-pointed mark flares across Raven's wound. Selûne's fading radiance gutters around her, sustained only where Lucien's numb arm anchors her to the light.

Above, the ward cracks with a sound like splitting ice. A shadowed hand presses through the fracture as the hunters begin to breach the hospice.

Lucien Draken leads Raven down the hidden stair, his numb arm still anchoring her to Selûne’s fading radiance. Behind them, Maelis’s ward flares against the breach.

The stair winds beneath the hospice into blue darkness. Ancient stars awaken in the walls as Raven’s seven-pointed sigil answers them, casting silver across each descending step.

At the stair’s end, a vast circular chamber opens around a suspended crystal star. Its seven points turn silently within a cradle of moonstone, illuminating a black altar below.

They reach the altar beneath the heart-star. Silver radiance descends over Raven’s mark, and the sanctuary’s buried bells answer with one clear, moon-bright note.

Lucien Draken guides Raven fully beneath the suspended heart-star. He lowers her into its silver circle, keeping his numb arm pressed to the moonstone altar.

The seven points blaze. Shar’s mark rises from Raven’s wound as a black, thorned sigil, dragging a cold shadow through Lucien’s anchored arm.

Lucien’s holy symbol strikes the altar. Silver radiance folds around the mark, binding it in place while the heart-star’s crystal points turn faster.

The mark shatters into ashless darkness and vanishes beneath the star. The backlash burns Lucien’s numb arm painfully from shoulder to fingertips, leaving it weak but intact.