Adventure of Pando 1

Before the compartment can be fully examined, a concealed seam opens behind the shelves. Neris, a middle-aged woman in ash-dusted robes, steps through with a folded, sealed assessment in hand.

Ilyan moves away from the rear wall, keeping his fading bearer marks visible. Tessa shifts beside Pando, one hand near the records but not touching them.

She extends the folded document without crossing farther into the vault. The seal bears Merrow’s authority, but newer charcoal marks circle the subject’s missing name and the transfer notation.

Pando stares intensely at Neris. The folded assessment remains extended between them, while Tessa and Ilyan hold their positions inside the quiet vault.

Neris sets the sealed assessment on the stone floor rather than passing it directly to Pando. She breaks Merrow’s seal in full view and unfolds the first page.

The assessment names an unidentified subject, records an early transfer, and notes that the subject was removed from Merrow’s authority before Ilyan entered the Ashen Vault.

Pando steps forward, takes the assessment from the stone floor, and lifts it into the ash-lamp’s light. He keeps the pages clear of every seal and control.

Pando reads each line aloud, comparing its dates and transfer marks against the ledger. His legendary recall catches a deliberate alteration: the transfer predates Ilyan’s arrival by three nights, not one.

Tessa folds the assessment beneath her arm and moves toward the vault passage. Ilyan follows after one cautious glance at Neris, leaving the control chamber with her.

Their footsteps recede beyond the broken doorway. The Ashen Vault settles into silence, leaving Pando and Neris beside the opened assessment and the quiet control.

Neris remains where she is, hands away from the controls. The assessment lies open between you, its altered dates and western destination exposed for further questioning.

Blood gathers between Pando’s fingers and hardens into a small dagger, its point angled toward the floor. He holds it close enough to make the warning unmistakable without touching Neris.

Neris keeps her hands raised and does not look away from the blood-forged point. Her guarded composure gives way to a direct account.

Neris reaches slowly into her robe and produces a charcoal rubbing of the western vault’s seal, laying it beside the assessment. The dagger remains steady as the hidden trail becomes concrete.

Pando seizes Neris by the throat and drives her back against the stone wall. The blood-forged dagger rises beneath her jaw, its point steady and close.

Neris keeps her hands raised, her breath controlled against Pando’s grip. The charcoal rubbing slips from her fingers and lands beside the open assessment.

Pando presses the blood-forged dagger slightly deeper beneath Neris’s jaw. A narrow red line appears, and she goes still against the stone, hands raised and breath measured.

Neris swallows carefully around the dagger’s point. Her charcoal rubbing lies beside the assessment, and the western vault’s seal is clearly drawn across its surface.

Pando slashes across Neris’s neck with the blood-forged dagger. The strike kills her immediately, and her body goes slack against the stone wall.

The motion wrenches Pando’s wrist and drives him half a step sideways. His boot slips on the scattered papers, leaving a sharp bruise along his hip as he catches himself against the wall.

The charcoal rubbing lies beside the open assessment, untouched. Neris’s death leaves the western infirmary vault’s access mark and Mara’s last known trail exposed on the stone floor.

Beyond the broken doorway, Tessa and Ilyan’s footsteps have faded into the lower passage. The quiet control remains warm beneath Pando’s hand, waiting beside the evidence.

Pando dismisses the blood-forged dagger. Its red-black shape loosens into a thin stream, then draws back through his fingers until no weapon remains.

The reclaiming completes cleanly, but Pando’s composure falters for a breath. His hand stays raised after the blood is gone, and the silence makes that hesitation unmistakable.

Pando lowers himself beside the scattered papers and studies the charcoal rubbing. The access mark is angular and layered, with a bearer line crossing beneath a western infirmary seal.

Comparing the rubbing with the open assessment, Pando recognizes the sequence: the mark requires a willing bearer’s pattern, then directs the holder to the infirmary vault without invoking Merrow’s authority.

Beyond the broken doorway, footsteps return through the lower passage. Tessa and Ilyan are coming back, while Neris’s body remains against the wall beside the evidence and the newly understood access mark.

Pando fixes the angular vault mark in memory, tracing its bearer line and western seal with his eyes until he can recall every crossing without the rubbing.

He gathers the pages describing Mara’s last trial, separating them from the broader assessment and leaving the charcoal rubbing beside Neris’s body. The trial notes are secured in his hand.

Pando moves through the broken doorway and raises a hand as Tessa and Ilyan return along the lower passage. They stop before reaching the vault, their attention fixed on him.

Before leaving, Pando looks back into the Ashen Vault. Neris remains motionless against the stone wall, the open assessment and western seal rubbing beside her, while the quiet control fades beneath his hand.

Pando turns from the vault and leads Tessa and Ilyan through the lower passage. His movement is swift and controlled, carrying Mara’s trial notes while the memorized angular mark guides each turn.

The passage bends beneath the observatory and opens onto a sealed western door. Its layered bearer line matches Pando’s memory, and the infirmary vault lies immediately beyond it.

Pando takes a seat near the sealed western door, keeping the layered bearer line in view. Tessa and Ilyan remain standing beside the lower stair.

Tessa sets the copied notation beside Pando’s trial notes. The matching marks establish Mara’s survival beyond the infirmary, while the chapel route remains the last recorded destination.

Pando remains seated beside the sealed western door, holding the copied notation in one hand. He hesitates, then opens his other palm and gathers a thin thread of blood across it.

Shadow settles into the blood, tracing the layered bearer line from memory. The angular western vault mark forms cleanly in Pando’s palm, its crossing seal matching the door before him.

The mark holds without spreading or drawing more blood. Pando keeps his palm turned toward himself, leaving the question unanswered while Tessa watches his face and Ilyan studies the silence.

The blood-forged mark remains complete in Pando’s palm, preserving every line of the western seal. The chapel route waits beyond the door, while Tessa and Ilyan give him room to answer.

Pando stands, keeping the copied notation in hand. He presses the blood-forged western vault mark against the sealed door, and its angular lines sink into the bearer seal.

The door answers immediately. Its layered seal brightens, then releases with a deep click as the western infirmary vault opens beyond the threshold.

Tessa absorbs the words without stepping back. The open vault reveals empty examination tables, sealed cabinets, and a narrow trail of disturbed dust leading toward the old ash chapel route.

Pando walks into the western infirmary vault and surveys it without disturbing the dust. Empty examination tables stand beneath sealed cabinets, while the disturbed trail bends toward a narrow archway marked with old ash.

His careful inspection finds dried medicinal stains, a broken restraint clasp, and a hidden notation scratched beneath the nearest table: Mara, lucid, transferred west under witness.

Pando follows the notation to a cabinet whose lock has been opened and relocked. Inside, one compartment contains a strip of linen bearing the same ash sigil as the chapel route.

Beyond the archway, Pando detects a faint draft and fresh grit across the floor. The hidden passage leads toward the old ash chapel, and a recent footprint turns into it.

Pando follows the draft through the ash-marked archway. The passage narrows beneath the infirmary, carrying cold air and the faint mineral scent of an older chamber ahead.

Tessa and Ilyan follow closely. The hidden route slopes west beneath the monastery, its walls marked with patient sigils and fresh grit where someone recently passed.

The passage opens beneath a roofless chapel. A narrow stair rises into gray daylight, and beside it rests a stone niche filled with wrapped records, each bearing the same ash sigil.

Pando reaches the niche and finds the newest bundle unsealed. Inside, a brief examination records Mara alive, lucid, and refusing renewed command trials before a later destination was entered.

Pando secures Mara’s examination bundle beneath his cloak and leaves the remaining records sealed in the chapel niche. Tessa and Ilyan fall in beside him as they retrace the patient passage.

They reach the sealed annex door without delay. Beyond it, voices shift and armored feet approach, while the bearer mark accepts Pando’s return and releases the inner lock.

The guards lower their spears and open the passage fully. Pando, Tessa, and Ilyan step into the annex, carrying Mara’s record toward the three people still waiting beyond the inner seal.

Pando slips through the opened annex passage with Tessa and Ilyan close behind. The bearer seal releases the inner lock without a sound, and he pulls the door shut before the guards can look below.

He leads them swiftly across the dusty annex, keeping Mara’s examination bundle secured beneath his cloak. Behind them, the guards remain at the outer passage, a pair of adult human watchmen in dark ash-gray cloaks and iron-studded boots, unaware of what waits in the lower vault.

Pando reaches the inner seal and opens it with the same controlled bearer pattern. The barrier swings inward, revealing Sister Elian, Brother Oren, and Davren beside the copied records.

Tessa and Ilyan pass through first. Pando follows with Mara’s bundle, and the seal closes behind him before any alarm reaches the annex chamber.

The request settles the chamber without argument. Tessa covers her weapon beneath her cloak, while Ilyan draws his hands inside his gray tunic and follows the group toward the inner passage.

Sister Elian gathers the copied records beneath her robe. Brother Oren and Davren conceal their carried materials, and the party moves through the sealed chamber before suspicion reaches the annex.

Elian opens a side door into a quiet service cloister. The group slips through in a close formation, weapons hidden, records secured, and the annex guards left behind without a clear view of their departure.

Pando leads them through the service cloister at a measured pace, scanning every archway, stair, and shadowed alcove before allowing the others to advance. Sister Elian, Brother Oren, Davren, Tessa, and Ilyan follow in silence.

His careful survey finds no guards ahead or waiting at the side doors. Beyond the cloister, a covered stair descends toward the monastery’s quieter residential rooms.

Pando checks the stair’s landing before stepping down. No armor shifts, voices, or watchful movement answers from below, and the group passes without drawing notice.

At the stair’s bottom, Pando identifies an unmarked door opening onto a secluded room. He signals the others through, then enters last after one final glance back toward the empty cloister.

The secluded room receives them with close walls and a shuttered window. Sister Elian secures the door while Tessa covers Mara’s records, and Ilyan listens for movement beyond the passage.

Sister Elian clears a space on the table. The gathered party closes around Mara’s examination bundle, while Brother Oren takes position by the door and the first questions settle into the room.

Pando recounts the sequence without omitting the confrontation: Ilyan’s marks faded, Neris admitted hiding Mara’s transfer, and the western vault became their next lead.

The room stays silent around the account. Tessa keeps Mara’s bundle covered, while Ilyan watches Pando with guarded attention and Sister Elian listens for pursuit beyond the door.

Sister Elian marks the chapel route on the table map. Brother Oren takes the service stair, Davren gathers the copied records, and Tessa secures Mara’s bundle for the journey.

Pando’s request settles over the map and Mara’s covered bundle. Sister Elian studies him, then the chapel route, recognizing a firm decision rather than a rejection of her help.

Brother Oren gathers the copied records, while Davren checks the seals and folds the map beneath his cloak. Elian remains with them, already directing their quiet return.

Pando, Tessa, and Ilyan move toward the lower passage with Mara’s examination secured. Behind them, Elian, Oren, and Davren take the opposite stair, separating cleanly without dispute.

Before following Ilyan, Pando pauses beside the lower passage and turns his attention inward. The monastery fades beneath dark, still water, and the dream surrounds him.

Avaris’s faceted core rises from the dream water. Its ordered channels brighten, and the surface settles completely around Pando’s awareness.

The connection holds without strain. Beyond the dream, Ilyan’s route and the ash chapel refuge remain fixed in Pando’s waking awareness, waiting for his return.

The question moves through the still water. Avaris’s facets turn slowly, separating the choice from its consequences without softening either.

The answer settles plainly in the dream: Pando’s danger was real, but Neris was no longer attacking or escaping. The evidence remained, while the witness did not.

Pando touches the dream water and releases a thin thread of blood into its still surface. Red-black ripples spread toward Avaris’s faceted core, carrying the question without distortion.

The water holds the blood in a suspended ring. Avaris’s facets turn through several colors before settling on a clear, steady glow.

The blood-thread returns through the dream water and settles beneath Pando’s awareness. Avaris leaves the answer plain: Tessa’s judgment is not hatred, but it will not be painless.

Pando releases a fuller stream of blood into the dream water and lowers himself until the dark surface bears his weight. Red-black ripples spread beneath his back toward Avaris’s faceted core.

The water rises around Pando without covering his face. Holding himself still within the deeper current costs him a moment of composure, and his sense of the boundary wavers visibly.

Avaris’s glow steadies the surrounding water. Pando remains lying within it, fully present, though the effort leaves his awareness briefly thin at the edges.

Pando forces himself beneath the dream water. The surface closes over him without resistance, and the deeper current bears his weight in silent darkness.

Below the surface, the water grows still around Pando’s body. The widened connection remains open, but his attention gathers into a steady point instead of scattering through the depths.

Avaris’s faceted core dims to a patient glow. Beneath the quiet water, Pando can separate the bond’s memories from his own immediate thoughts and consider the choice without being pushed toward it.

Pando follows the deeper current backward, past the testing platform and the records that named only failures. A younger Neris appears beside a warded table, ash dust on her sleeves and uncertainty fixed in her face.

The memory clarifies: Neris checks the bindings, measures the curse’s response, and quietly leaves water within reach after each trial. She records every manifestation, but her eyes repeatedly return to the observing door.

Another fragment settles into place. When an unseen authority orders the trial extended, Neris steps between the ward and the younger Pando, then turns toward the observers instead of lowering her gaze.

The memory does not soften her complicity: Neris still writes the measurements, still remains inside Merrow’s system, and still helps prepare the next examination. But she begins marking certain pages for removal.

The deeper water gathers around Pando’s words. Younger Neris remains beside the warded table, caught between the observing door and the living subject she is trying to preserve.

The memory shifts without releasing its darker truth. Neris records the measurements, helps prepare the trials, and still leaves water within reach when the observers would have denied it.

A second reflection forms beneath the first: Ilyan’s steady hand at Pando’s wrist, another bearer enduring the same chamber. The memory makes the word all feel heavier.

Pando sinks beneath the deeper current, driving his awareness past the memories of Neris and Ilyan. The water darkens until even Avaris’s glow becomes distant.

Fragments rush upward instead of opening: a sealed page, a child’s shadow, and a doorway without a name. When Pando reaches for them, the current twists them into indistinguishable reflections.

The deeper water contracts around Pando’s awareness and seals the passage behind him. The memories remain present, but their order and ownership are now obscured beyond direct reading.

A single image survives the collapse: a red-black mark pressed into stone beside a page marked for removal. Then the current carries Pando back toward the calmer water above.

Pando turns upward through the deeper current, following the last calm thread of Avaris’s glow. The water resists his ascent, and the effort jars his bruised hip with a sharp, physical ache.

Pando reaches the calmer layer and breaks through its dark surface. The deeper current falls away beneath him, leaving the red-black water smooth around Avaris’s faceted core.

The surface steadies beneath Pando’s awareness. His hip continues to throb from the hard ascent, but the upper dream waters are clear, and every awakened channel waits in ordered silence.

Pando rises from the calm dream water and steps forward. Each footfall dimples the surface without breaking it, though his bruised hip pulls sharply with every measured stride.

The ache worsens as he crosses the dark surface, forcing his pace slower and leaving a tight hitch in his movement. Still, the faceted core remains directly ahead.

Pando reaches the core. Its angular facets turn beneath the dark surface, reflecting his mismatched eyes and the ordered channels gathered inside.

He extends his hand and places his palm against Avaris. The contact sends a cool current through his arm while his bruised hip gives a hard throb beneath him.

Blood leaves Pando’s hand and spreads across Avaris’s facets in red-black lines. The sealed channels fracture open, and their contained currents pour into the dream water without resistance.

Forge, reclaiming, reinforcement, healing, and the deeper hidden channels ignite together beneath the crystal core. Their complete strength enters Pando’s command, no reservoir withheld.

The achievement tears briefly at Pando’s composure. His sense of self blurs into the opened current, and his hand remains against Avaris while one breath passes before he gathers himself.

Pando’s boundary firms around the unleashed power. Avaris’s broken seals remain open, every channel bright and accessible, while the dream water waits beneath his restored command.

Pando keeps his hand against Avaris and accepts the full current without pulling away. The unleashed channels flow through him in ordered streams, while his boundary closes firmly around every power received.

Forge, reclaiming, reinforcement, healing, and the deeper channels settle into a single command lattice within Pando’s awareness. Nothing remains sealed, and no reservoir strains against his will.

The dream water brightens beneath Pando’s feet. Each channel answers his attention separately, yet all remain joined through the open core and await a chosen command.

Avaris’s facets turn beneath Pando’s palm, revealing fresh pathways branching beyond the channels he already knows. Their patterns are open, stable, and readable through his restored command.

Pando clenches his fist around the full current. The channels answer together, red-black power settling beneath his skin without resistance or strain.

The dream water dimples beneath Pando’s feet as his fist tightens. Forge, reclaiming, reinforcement, healing, and the deeper paths remain distinct inside the single lattice.

Pando holds the clenched fist steady, feeling every channel remain available and obedient. The open core shines beneath his palm, stable beneath the pressure of his will.

The words settle into the dream water as a clear boundary. The full current remains gathered within Pando, powerful but silent, awaiting a purpose he alone will give.

Avaris’s open core turns beneath Pando’s palm. The channels answer his resolve without tightening around it, preserving their strength while leaving his direction untouched.

The dream water steadies around Pando. Every path remains open, but none pulls him forward. The choice, and the life shaped by it, remain his to direct.

Pando places his hand on Avaris’s open core again. The facets meet his palm, but the full current withdraws before the contact can deepen.

A cool pulse passes through his hand and stops. The dream water remains below his feet, calm and undisturbed, while the core’s brighter channels dim to a guarded glow.

Avaris’s facets close around the unused pathways without sealing Pando in the dream. The open power remains his, but further access withdraws until another deliberate entry.

The core releases Pando’s palm cleanly. The dream water parts into a dark upward path, and the monastery’s waking air begins to replace the quiet depths around him.

Pando places his hand against Avaris’s open core and releases a measured thread of blood. Red-black lines spread across the facets, loosening the core’s angular shape.

The crystal form unfolds into a young adult drow woman around Pando’s age. She has a lean build, dark skin, long silver hair, and mismatched eyes that echo the core’s shifting light.

The new form steadies before him, feet touching the dream water without sinking. The channels remain visible beneath her skin, ordered and responsive rather than sealed.

Pando’s will falters after the transformation. His hand stays against Avaris for one breath too long, and the dream briefly blurs at its edges before his composure returns.

Avaris lifts her newly formed hand from the water and studies its fingers, then looks directly at Pando. The dream remains open around them, awaiting what he will do with this change.

Pando steps forward and wraps his arms around Avaris’s new form. Her body is warm and solid beneath his embrace, while the dream water remains calm around them.

Avaris slowly returns the embrace, one arm settling around Pando’s back. The channels beneath her skin brighten softly, responding to connection without claiming it.

The embrace steadies Pando’s blurred boundary. Avaris’s new form remains clear against him, no command passing between them, only the quiet certainty of mutual recognition.

Avaris keeps him close for another quiet breath, then eases back only enough to meet his mismatched eyes. The open core glows behind her, waiting without urgency.

Pando leans forward and kisses Avaris. Her warmth remains beneath his hands, and the dream water stays calm as the chosen gesture passes between them.

Avaris rests her forehead against Pando’s for one quiet breath. Then the dream water dims, and her shaped form remains steady as waking light gathers beyond it.

Pando returns to the monastery passage beside the lower stair. The quiet room, Mara’s secured records, and the ash-marked route settle back into clear focus around him.

Tessa keeps Mara’s bundle covered while Ilyan watches the lower route. The chapel refuge waits beyond the passage, and both companions leave space for Pando’s answer.