The Child lifts one hand toward the sleeping knights, and the violet hush around them tightens like a held breath. Sparks drift past their still face as they watch Yysara cross the courtyard.
The Child
You choose the knight first. I expected that.
Yysara closes on the nearest slumbering knight. The violet fire licks higher from the granary, painting the stone in hard, cold light.
Yysara
The sleep on them feels unnatural.
The Child
If you wake him, he wakes angry. If you do not, the fire keeps eating.
The knight lies unmoving at Yysara’s feet, mail dim under ash-colored light. Behind her, the child does not advance, but their gaze stays fixed, waiting for her answer in motion.
✓ Quest Accepted
Wake the sleeping knight
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine the source of the violet fire
“Can I use my magic to dampen the violet flames while I wake him?”
NO (Even, rolled 87)
Yysara channels her divine grace to suppress the violet fire, but the flames ignore her influence entirely. The cold light remains fixed and unyielding, refusing to dim even as she focuses her will upon the source.
“I try to put out the fire with magic”
SUCCESS (Fair Arcana, rolled -1)
Yysara draws a tight circle of light through the cold air, and the violet flames finally buckle. The fire gutters low, then peels away from the granary stones in torn ribbons of color.
The nearest sleeping knight stirs beneath the borrowed dark, one gauntleted hand twitching against the ground as if something deep in the spell has noticed her touch.
The Child
There. You found the thread.
The child’s knowing smile returns for a heartbeat, but the courtyard answers with a harsher pulse. Sparks leap higher, and the shadows jerk long across the stones.
Yysara
The source is tied to the sleeping spell.
Yysara’s magic holds, but the strain bites back, numbing her fingers and leaving frost across her sleeve. The knight breathes once, shallow and wrong, not yet fully awake.
The Child
Wake him, and see what answers first, him... or the fire?
“I wake the knight”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Yysara presses her spell through the knight’s slumber, and the borrowed dark thins at last. The gauntleted hand clenches, then drops flat to the stone as the seal breaks.
The knight jerks awake with a ragged inhale, eyes snapping wide under his helm. Frost crackles on the courtyard stones where the chill of the working magic lingers.
A Sleeping Knight
What in the name of the keep...?
The violet fire answers immediately, not with a roar, but with a sharp tightening, ribbons of color drawing inward along the granary wall like strings pulled taut.
The Child
There. He’s awake now.
The child’s smile lingers, small and knowing, while the knight pushes himself upright and stares between Yysara and the burning stone.
A Sleeping Knight
Did you wake me, or did the fire?
Quest Complete
Wake the sleeping knight
Skill Upgrade: Arcana Fair→Good
“I ask the knight what woke him”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled -1)
Yysara
What woke you?
A Sleeping Knight
Not the fire. The sigil in my helm went cold, then something yanked at the spell from inside my skull.
He presses two fingers to the rim of his helm and winces. A thin thread of frost falls from the metal, and the violet ribbons along the granary wall tighten in answer.
The Child
So it notices when its sleeping men move. That is useful.
A Sleeping Knight
Its? By the saints, child, what are you talking about?
The child’s smile stays small and knowing. The knight looks from the granary to Yysara, waiting for an explanation he does not trust.
A Sleeping Knight
If you woke me for a reason, say it plainly. What is bound to this keep?
“I ask the child what bound this keep”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Yysara
What is bound to this keep?
The Child
A sleeping oath. The knights were sworn to guard the granary seal, then the seal was fed and fed until it learned to hunger.
A Sleeping Knight
That cannot be right. We guarded grain, not sorcery.
The Child
You guarded both, though you forgot the second part. That is why I kept you asleep.
The child’s smile lingers, small and certain, as the violet ribbons twitch over the wall like something listening.
Yysara
The seal and the fire are tied together.
A Sleeping Knight
If that is true, then tell me what wakes it, child. I would know what we are failing to hold.
The Child
Ask the shrine-woman. She already touched the edge of it.
Quest Complete
Determine the source of the violet fire
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Fair→Good