Adventure of Tuiwen 2

The dragon continues scraping at the shallow basin, claws grinding stone. Each movement darkens the floor with fresh blood from its held-tight left wing, while the Woodland courier watches from the passage mouth.

Tuiwen examines the black mineral mass without touching it. Torn metal bands bite into its surface, their edges warped inward as though something within has strained against the binding.

The last crust gives way. Pale water beads through the stone, gathers in the shallow channel, and begins to run beneath the burden. The dragon lowers its head but does not drink.

Ancient Elven runes flare around the sealed mass, silver light circling the torn bands. Their meaning unfolds clearly: the binding can hold only while a living guardian pays its strength into the ward.

The dragon’s ember-bright eyes turn toward Tuiwen. The runes pulse once between them, and the black mass answers with a muffled movement from within.

Tuiwen’s Sovereign Heritage gives her introduction quiet authority, while Protector of the Kin makes the offer plainly concerned rather than commanding. Oath-Bound restraint keeps her promise limited to help she can truly provide.

The dragon lowers its head until one ember-bright eye meets hers. Its injured wing remains folded, but its claws withdraw from the basin and cease their grinding.

The runes brighten at the dragon’s words, and the black mass gives a slow, contained heave. The dragon does not threaten her; it turns its wounded side toward the basin, exposing the strain.

The dragon’s request is clear, and its wary posture eases. Tuiwen has gained its trust enough to work beside it, with the basin, the binding, and the hidden burden now offered to her aid.

Tuiwen draws the Elven blade and lays its tip beside the binding, giving her Cleansing Light a path into the stone. The gift answers from within her, not as a carried thing, gathering first around her empty hand.

Oath-Bound restraint checks the light at the ward’s heart, forbidding her to sever what the runes still hold. Sovereign Heritage steadies her authority, while Protector of the Kin turns the radiance toward freeing both guardian and spring.

The Elven blade traces the bands’ lawful joins without touching the black mass. Cleansing Light enters those seams, burns away the binding’s poison, and leaves the ancient runes whole as silver fire flows through them.

The warped bands loosen and fall open without striking the ward. Clear water surges beneath the burden, washing the mineral taint from the channels; the black mass settles, sealed but no longer drinking the spring’s strength.

The dragon folds its injured wing more gently. Beneath the reopened bands, the ward remains intact and the dark burden lies quiet, while a clean stream threads through the chamber toward the mountain’s living channels.