Dust drifts from the cracked bell as Elias stares at the token in Xaurier’s hand. The color drains from his face.
Elias the Miller
That mark. I have seen it before.
He catches Xaurier by the sleeve and draws him a few steps aside, lowering his voice to a whisper.
Elias the Miller
It belonged to the lay-sisters. The woman in your hollow was the old caretaker here, years gone. We thought she fled.
By the exposed stone, the Inquisitor stands still, staring into the ash-black hollow. His jaw tightens, but he does not interrupt.
The Inquisitor
Lay-sisters. Then this chapel remembers more than our records do.
Elias glances back at the hollow, then at Xaurier, his urgency easing into something quieter, almost grateful to be understood.
Elias the Miller
If you can read old signs, then help me make sense of her. I would hear what she was trying to leave behind.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the old caretaker was trying to leave behind
“I ask Elias what the caretaker left behind”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Xaurier
What did she leave behind, exactly?
Elias the Miller
Not a message for the eye, I think. A working of sorts. She left the charm for the child, the token to mark the old order, and the cloth as a witness. All of it pointing back to the hollow, like she meant someone careful to follow the parts in the right hand.
Elias the Miller
If he can read this, maybe the years have not swallowed her after all.
The Inquisitor
A caretaker does not hide relics without fear. Or purpose.
The Inquisitor
And if she feared, then she may have tried to protect the boy from what I have not yet seen.
Elias opens his palm to show the blackened token, then taps the mud-stained cloth with two fingers. The chapel seems to hold its breath around the lifted stone.
Elias the Miller
She was leaving a trail for someone who knew the chapel's language. Maybe for the boy. Maybe for whoever came after him.
Quest Complete
Learn what the old caretaker was trying to leave behind