The elven warden breaks the silver seal and leads Coco down into the ancient record hall. Green light spills from root-bound tablets, illuminating shelves grown directly from Yggara’s living wood.
the elven warden
Walk only where I indicate. These records preserve witnessed memory, including anything the roots were commanded to conceal.
The tablets awaken as Coco passes. Their runes show a younger Coco beside the Ashen Knight, following the same root-lit path beneath Yggara while fragments of erased conversation flicker between them.
Ashen Knight
You were never meant to see this record without me.
Ashfall tears through the warded threshold. The severed chain lashes outward, cutting the hall off from Seris and Vael, while the warden’s first defense fails beneath the Knight’s strike. He falls motionless beside the sealed tablet.
Shelves collapse as the Ashen Knight advances. Root-bound tablets shatter, releasing stolen images of Coco’s forgotten visit, while living roots writhe across the floor and narrow every passage.
Ashen Knight
Run if you must, Coco. Every step forward will show you another thing you chose to forget.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve the record hall’s evidence
“I search for a safe route around the collapsing shelves. the Ashen Knigh carges at me atemping to grab me”
FAILURE (Great Agility, rolled -1)
Coco scans the collapsing hall, tracking the roots beneath the falling shelves. A narrow passage opens along the eastern wall, where green light pulses behind a curtain of broken tablets.
Ashen Knight
You will not outrun what you already surrendered.
The Ashen Knight charges through the debris, one gauntlet reaching for Coco. Coco cuts toward the eastern passage as a shelf crashes behind him.
His cloak catches on a splintered root. The Knight’s fingers close around the fabric instead of Coco, wrenching him backward and tearing the garment from his shoulders.
Ashen Knight
Still choosing flight. Still leaving pieces of yourself behind.
Coco stumbles clear, but the passage he sought seals beneath falling tablets. The torn cloak remains trapped in the Knight’s grasp, buying only a heartbeat.
Behind the sealed route, the pulsing light reveals a root-formed doorway marked with the same symbol as Coco’s journal. It is narrow, but still open, offering a different escape.