The hooded figure hangs inches above the tavern floor, their bound hand trembling inside the pale lattice. Green spelllight ripples, then stains toward violet, and the room goes still around it.
The Hooded Figure
That binding... no. Too bright. Too late.
A cold pressure brushes the edge of Walksfar Seesmuch's mind, like stone grinding against stone. From the doorway, washed in spell-collapse light, a woman in a travel-stained gray mantle steps into view, one hand raised to shield her eyes.
The Gray-Mantled Stranger
Easy. Let none of it break free. I came only to pass through Valedorn, not to watch a tavern become a tomb.
The Red-Faced Nobleman
Then help us, if you have any sense at all. That thing is wrong, and it is getting worse.
The stranger studies the violet sheen, then the bound hand, then Walksfar Seesmuch with quick, measuring calm. The Burly Gate-keeper shifts his grip and squares himself between the crowd and the levitating prisoner.
The Gray-Mantled Stranger
Your lattice holds, elf. But it is pulling on something older than a common spell. If you mean to keep the creature down, you may need another word of power.
+ Scene Quest Added
Keep the hooded figure bound
“seek another word of power in spellbook”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
Walksfar Seesmuch slips her spellbook charm free, and the silver pages within it flare open like a caught moonbeam. The violet strain in the binding answers at once, threads of light snapping tight around a hidden phrase.
The air tastes of cold rain and old stone. A second word rises from the book, unfamiliar and ancient, and the lattice steadies with a clean, ringing hum.
The hooded figure jerks once, then hangs rigid again, now wrapped in a deeper, more disciplined glow. A small mark of the new power seals itself across the spell, bright as a violet knot.
The Gray-Mantled Stranger
That is the word I meant. Well done, elf. Hold it there.
Burly Gate-keeper
By the gate, look at that. She’s locked it down proper.
The Red-Faced Nobleman
Thank every saint in Valedorn. Keep it bound, keep it bound.
From the doorway glare, the stranger lowers her hand and studies the charm-book in Walksfar Seesmuch's grasp, her expression sharpening with interest.
The Hooded Figure
You would rather read than listen? Then read this, little mage, while you still can.
Quest Complete
Keep the hooded figure bound