The Domini saga : lich lords favor

Before sunset, Kynes, Bren, and Mara return along the concealed path to their private riverside home. The house stands quiet beneath the trees, its new roof glowing amber above the raised foundation.

They carry wrapped linens, iron hooks, lamp oil, and fresh rolls into the unfinished kitchen. Open shelves line the bare walls, leaving enough space for everyone to decide where ordinary life should settle.

Mara carries the linens toward the guest-room passage, folding each piece over her arm before placing it on a clear shelf. She leaves the arrangement easy to change, rather than claiming the space permanently.

Bren turns the iron hooks over in her hands and studies the kitchen walls. Her gaze moves from the hearth to the work surface, weighing reach, convenience, and the paths people will use each morning.

The rolls rest in a cloth-lined basket, filling the quiet room with warm grain and spice. Mara pauses beside the open shelves, while Bren waits with the hooks and the unfinished walls offer several possible homes.

Kynes leaves Private riverside home behind and arrives at Phandelver.

Phandelver receives Kynes beneath a clear afternoon sky. Familiar stone streets carry the smells of bread, sawdust, and sun-warmed dust, while market awnings stir in the mild wind.

He arrives at the edge of the market square, where ordinary trade continues around a broad public notice board. Fresh ink marks one parchment among the older town announcements.

The parchment concerns a missing wayfinder hired to guide a supply wagon through the northern foothills. Its final line offers payment for information, signed only with a blue hill-shaped mark.

Beyond the square, the baker’s awning is open, and the road toward the Hall remains quiet. The notice flutters again, exposing a second scrap hidden beneath it.

That smaller scrap bears a single charcoal instruction: Ask at the old quarry before moonrise. No name accompanies it, but the blue mark appears once more beneath the words.

Kynes returns through the tavern door and finds the keeper behind the counter. At the request, the old man sets aside his tankard and leads him past the quiet tables.

The keeper points to a narrow table half-hidden by the window’s shadow. One cup ring marks the boards, and a few pale grains of quarry dust cling beneath the bench.

He crouches and lifts the bench slightly, revealing a faint blue hill-shaped mark scratched into the underside. The keeper steps back, leaving the discovery to Kynes.

Kynes lowers his hand toward the scratched mark and stills his breathing. His senses spread through the table, bench, dust, and fading traces of the stranger’s presence.

The psychometry takes hold. He sees the cloaked stranger seated alone, carrying no pack, while blue light from the hill-shaped mark reflects across gloved fingers and a travel-worn sleeve.

A sharper impression follows: Rovan, a young adult human man with a lean build, weathered light skin, short dark hair, and a blue-gray hooded cloak, was not investigating the town. He was confirming that someone had noticed the blue mark, then left toward the old quarry before moonrise.

The vision reveals a second memory clinging to the scratched wood: stone steps descending beneath the quarry, a sealed iron door, and blue marks guiding the way below.

The blue mark fades to ordinary charcoal beneath Kynes’s touch, but the path is clear: Rovan has gone to the old quarry, and the trail remains fresh enough to follow.

The keeper inclines his head, accepting the brief gratitude without pressing Kynes for an explanation. The tavern remains quiet around them, its ordinary warmth undisturbed.

He lowers the bench carefully and leaves the scratched mark beneath it, hidden from the room’s casual notice. Dust still clings to the boards, pointing toward the northern road and the old quarry.

The keeper returns to his counter and resumes polishing the tankard. Behind him, the west window catches the fading light, while the road beyond the square waits without urgency.

Kynes leaves the tavern and follows the northern road beyond the pasture. The trail is clear beneath his senses: faint quarry dust, a heel mark in soft earth, and broken blue charcoal on stones.

He crosses a dry streambed and enters the old stonecutters’ track, where thorn and grass conceal most footprints. Rovan chose the firm ground, but left enough disturbance for Kynes to follow without slowing.

The path climbs between pale outcrops toward the abandoned quarry. Wind carries the scent of dust and pine, while the last daylight catches blue marks scratched low along the rocks.

Kynes reaches the quarry before moonrise. Its broad hollow lies empty beneath the darkening sky, with abandoned cutting blocks scattered around a stairway descending into the stone.

Blue hill-shaped marks guide the steps below. At their foot stands the sealed iron door from the remembered trace, its surface cold, unbroken, and waiting in the quarry’s shadow.

The trail has brought Kynes directly to the hidden entrance. Dust near the threshold bears Rovan’s fresh boot impressions, continuing beneath the door’s lower seam.

Kynes studies the sealed iron door and finds no ordinary lock. His senses trace a thin blue pattern beneath the threshold, where Rovan’s boot impressions end beside a concealed pressure-stone.

He presses the stone and follows the route encoded in the marks. The door releases inward without a sound, revealing a narrow stair descending through clean-cut rock.

Blue charcoal marks guide Kynes below. The passage bends beneath the quarry, opening into a chamber where a young adult man in a blue-gray hooded cloak studies a circular stone table.

Rovan turns from the table. Weathered features and short dark hair show beneath his hood, while blue lines on the stone form a map of the northern foothills.

A faint tremor passes through the chamber floor. Rovan steps aside, leaving the marked table and the descending darkness fully visible to Kynes.

Rovan touches the blue-marked map, tracing a route from the quarry toward the scarred hills beyond Phandelver. His guarded posture eases, but only slightly.

The chamber gives a low stone groan. Beneath the circular table, a thin blue line brightens and points toward the sealed iron door at the far end.

Rovan steps away from the table, leaving the map exposed. The tremor fades, but the blue route remains lit, waiting for Kynes to decide what question comes next.

Rovan points to a side passage branching from the chamber. The blue marks there are dim and orderly, leading toward a sheltered room rather than deeper into the quarry.

A man’s voice carries faintly from beyond the side passage, calling Rovan’s name and asking whether the newcomer is safe. The answer confirms Teren is awake and nearby.

Kynes follows Rovan through the side passage with measured, quiet steps. The blue marks guide them into a sheltered chamber where a young adult man sits beside a water flask, lean and dust-streaked beneath a brown travel coat.

Teren has weathered light-brown skin, cropped sandy hair, and a healing bruise at his temple. He rises carefully when Rovan enters, keeping one hand on the stone wall for balance.

Teren points toward a rough sketch scratched into the dust: the quarry, the northern foothills, and a second opening marked beyond the old battle country. His finger stops before the deepest line.

Teren studies Kynes for a moment, then lets his hand fall from the wall. The question carries no threat, and his guarded posture eases.

A faint, embarrassed smile crosses Teren’s dust-streaked face. He glances toward Rovan, who remains beside the passage with his arms folded, listening without correcting him.

The blue lines in Teren’s dusty sketch remain dim and steady. Beyond the chamber, stone gives another quiet groan, but neither man mistakes it for an immediate command.

Rovan steps to the dusty map and draws a firm blue line from the shelter toward the northern cut face. His guardedness gives way to practical trust.

Teren folds the sketch and rises more steadily this time. Rovan gathers a blue-marked chalk and a hooded lantern, leaving the eastern shelter open behind them.

The three leave the shelter and enter the quarry passage together. Blue marks brighten along the stone, guiding them toward the first opened path while the chamber settles into silence behind them.