The sealed stair grinds open without Maelin Voss’s token. Dust spills across the chamber as a bloodied courier stumbles through, clutching a broken bell clapper.
Ilyra Quen
The eastern route is breached. Someone has begun opening the dead wells, and the Sepulcher’s sigil is already moving.
Ilyra Quen drops to one knee before the basalt throne. The engraved clapper rolls across the stone, its broken end marked with the sepulcher’s black sign.
Veiled Handmaster
You entered through a sealed stair. No token opened it. Speak carefully, courier, or the court will decide your message is bait.
Maelin Voss
Ilyra Quen, you vanished three nights ago beyond the ash orchards. Who sent you back through a door the guild itself cannot open?
Masked observers lean from the balconies. Ashkar prowls nearer to Vesuvius, ember eyes fixed on Ilyra, while Maelin remains at his other side.
Ilyra Quen
No one sent me. I crawled from the second dead well, and something below rang that clapper before the earth opened. If you seek Maloric, you are already expected.
Discover who is opening the dead wells