The concealed side passage grinds open. A lightly wounded young woman slips through, one hand pressed to her ribs and the other gripping a sealed bone message.
Ciara Vance
My name is Ciara Vance. Moa’s agents attacked me while I followed the custody trail. This message identifies Savael Marr’s next destination.
She extends the bone message toward the hidden keeper, but the guardian’s red boundary answers first. A faint dark sigil glimmers beneath the runic markings on Ciara’s skin.
Othran Veyr
That mark is not from a wounded courier. It is a tether, and it answers the boundary like a spy’s leash.
Ciara Vance
I carried what I found. If the boundary dislikes my presence, question the mark, not the message. Savael’s trail cannot wait.
Elyra keeps her bow lowered but watches Ciara’s hands. Eli edges closer to the bone message, while the slave princess remains beside the hidden keeper inside the narrowing red circle.
Ciara Vance
Myk, decide quickly. Will you read the message, or will you let the guardian decide what my tether means?
“I isolate Ciara beyond the guardian’s boundary”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +0)
Myk closes on Ciara before she can step nearer the red boundary. He catches her shoulder and drives her backward, using the blackened sword across his body as a hard lever between them.
His marked sorcery answers the guardian’s sigil with a violent blur, scrambling his balance and turning the floor sideways beneath his boots. The sword’s buried passage-mark steadies his push and forces Ciara beyond the boundary’s red edge.
Myk’s palm scrapes against the rough stone as he completes the shove. Skin tears beneath his glove, and his knee strikes the floor, but Ciara lands outside the guardian’s circle with the sealed message still in hand.
Ciara Vance
You chose isolation over answers. Sensible, perhaps, but the message remains unbroken and Savael’s trail is still moving.
Othran Veyr
Good. The tether no longer touches my boundary. Whatever dark sigil rides her skin, it cannot use this circle as a door.
Elyra
She is outside it now. Keep the message where it can be seen, Ciara, and do not make Myk force you farther back.
The caster loses part of their memories, emotions, or physical senses as the spell’s price.
“I bargain with Ciara for the sealed message”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Myk keeps the blackened sword angled between Ciara and the boundary. His Reads Pursuers gift follows the message, not her wounded posture, tracing the route she will take if refused.
Myk
Give me the message, and I will keep your tether away from the guardian. In return, I will let you leave with the trail protected and your secret intact.
The marked sorcery muddies Myk’s certainty, scattering Ciara’s possible answers into cruel false paths. The sword’s buried passage-mark steadies his judgment, narrowing them to the bargain she can actually accept.
Ciara Vance
You bargain like a man who expects betrayal. Fine. Take the message, but if you break that promise, I will hunt you before Moa’s agents find either of us.
Ciara extends the sealed bone. Myk takes it without crossing the red edge, and the dark tether on her skin recoils from the sword’s mark rather than touching the guardian’s boundary.
The sorcery’s price settles over Myk: the exact sound of Ciara’s first warning slips from memory. His composure falters visibly, and Elyra catches the hesitation before he can hide it.
Othran Veyr
The message is yours, creditor. Read it quickly. Savael Marr’s destination is now in your hands, and the bargain has left Ciara’s tether outside my boundary.
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed bone message
“Read the sealed message with Eli, Elyra, and slave princess near you so they can help you with anything you might miss”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled -1)
Myk sets the sealed bone message beneath the red light. Elyra, Eli, and Nadira gather close, while Ciara remains beyond the guardian’s boundary, watching in silence.
The seal opens under Myk’s marked fingers, but sorcery smears the first lines into shifting fragments. His Reads Pursuers gift follows the pressure of the script, separating directions from decoys.
Eli
The left column is a route, not a name. These repeated cuts mark changes in direction.
Elyra
And this ash pressed into the bone matches the trail my contacts found. Savael was moving west before turning toward the old quarry road.
Nadira
The lower marks are House Veyr’s custody signs. They say the testimony must reach the ruined bell-tower at dusk.
Together they reconstruct the message: Savael Marr is bound, a lean young adult woman with tawny skin, cropped black hair, and a weathered gray travel cloak for the ruined bell-tower beyond the old quarry road, carrying a second witness ledger. The bone seal crumbles once the destination is understood.
Myk
The route is genuine, and the destination is clear.
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the second witness ledger
“I lead us west along the old quarry road toward the ruined bell-tower. While awkwardly trying to reconnect with Elyra while Eli teases you and the other watch on Wonder just how well you to know each other”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +0)