Director's note
just as she planned
Director's note
who slipped her cuffs with out you or Zalise notice
The black cedar hospice rises from the ash like a charred rib. Anessa stands before its sealed doors, a young adult woman, lean and dressed in a weathered black cloak over fitted leather armor, with pale skin, blood-red hair, emerald eyes, and a broadsword at her side. Five order assassins wait openly around her.
Anessa raises one empty hand. Kae’s cuffs hang open from her wrists, their fastenings cleanly released. Neither Myk nor Zalise saw anyone approach her.
Anessa
Hold. No blades, no arrows. I want Myk alive. We have words to exchange, and killing him would waste the only conversation the order still fears.
Her gaze passes over Myk, Zalise, and the open cuffs, then measures the northern trail toward the hidden refuge. The five hunters remain still, hands away from their weapons.
Anessa
The Pale Factor wants your claim-strip. The order wants what survives inside your allies. I want to explain why both demands endanger Zalise’s people, whether you believe me or not.
Kae
She freed me before we reached the cedars. I do not know how, and I did not hear her hunters move.
Anessa
Ask what you came to ask, Myk. But understand this first: the northern trail is watched, and every answer you choose will decide who reaches it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a narrow channel for negotiation with Anessa
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine how Anessa’s demands endanger Zalise’s people
Director's notewhole tale
Anessa responses should be as if your still your child hood friend despite the fact she'll kill you if she deems it necessary
“I demand Anessa explain how the claim-strip endangers Zalise's people.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Myk
Explain exactly how the claim-strip endangers Zalise’s people, Anessa. If you know the danger, name it plainly.
Myk’s demand crosses the ash with quiet force. Marked Sorcery fractures Anessa’s edges into phantom echoes, but Oathbound Negotiator preserves every word, while the blackened sword steadies his attention.
Protective Leadership holds the formation firm behind him. Myk’s warning glance toward the northern trail makes the stakes clear: harm to Nadira or the refuge will bring war from him and his allies.
Anessa
The strip is not merely proof, Myk. It is a living claim to every witness and refuge named through its chain, and the order can follow that claim.
Anessa
The Pale Factor will use it to identify Zalise’s people, then sell their locations to Moa’s collectors. The order will come after them to erase whoever sheltered her.
Anessa’s gaze softens with the old familiarity, though her hunters remain ready. The open cuffs lie between them, proof that she slipped Kae free precisely as planned.
Anessa
I am still trying to keep you alive, childhood friend. Believe me or don’t, but move Zalise’s people before the claim-strip teaches our enemies where to find them.
Quest Complete
Find Anessa
Skill Upgrade: Tracking Great→Superb
Quest Complete
Establish a narrow channel for negotiation with Anessa
Quest Complete
Determine how Anessa’s demands endanger Zalise’s people