The Hall of Welcome settles into a rare hush. The open floorboards breathe a steady violet pulse, and the cold that haunted the seam is gone.
Nhal sits cross-legged beside the opening, eyes closed, fingertips resting lightly on the necklace at their throat. The memory crystal answers with a soft thrum.
Nhal
This path is not hungry anymore. It is... waiting.
Bren remains by the door, posture eased but alert, her hand no longer tense on her weapon. She watches the room instead of the seam now.
Bren
Well. That is a better sound than the last few hours.
Nhal opens their eyes, violet light reflecting in them, and gives Slaan a small, tired smile. The pulse from the crystal slows, like a breath letting out.
Nhal
I can read more of it, if you want. Or I can stop, and we can simply sit with what we found.
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover the hidden cost of Nhal’s connection to the void
“I sit with Nhal and study the seam”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Slaan lowers herself beside Nhal, spell book in hand, and lets her attention sink into the seam. The violet pulse is not just steady, it is layered, like several thoughts moving under one skin.
Slaan
It is carrying more than light. It is carrying echoes.
The glow answers her focus. Threads in the opening sharpen into a branching pattern, and one thread twitches toward Nhal’s necklace before fading back into the floor.
Nhal
I feel that pull too. Every time I listen too hard, it wants a piece of what I am.
Bren’s gaze cuts from the door to the seam, her calm tightening into alert concern as the pulse reveals a second rhythm beneath the first, smaller and fainter, like a cost hidden inside the route.
Bren
So the path is a relay, and the relay is taking something in exchange.
Slaan studies the pattern long enough to catch the shape of it. The memory channel does not merely carry messages, it drinks the edge off memory, blurring what brushes it too often.
Nhal
Then we should be careful with how often we touch it.
Quest Complete
Uncover the hidden cost of Nhal’s connection to the void
“" shouldn't do that, the void it self is like air or water, it's a substance. No this is a void parasite, it latches on to void fold and twists them or pulls them. " I strengthen the runes and wards in the script to cancel out and inoculate nhal and other void fed and void kin against void parasites.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -1)
Slaan presses the new pattern into the script, and the violet lattice answers at once. The layered pulse smooths, its hungry edge folding inward as if recognized and rewritten.
Slaan
That should not behave like air. It is a parasite, it latches onto void-folds and twists them.
Her wards flare once, then settle into a cleaner shape. A pale counter-thread spreads through the seam, quiet and exact, like a charm laid over an old scar.
The glow runs through Nhal’s necklace without tugging. It meets them, checks itself, and slides past, leaving no clawing pull behind.
Nhal
That feels different. Safer.
Bren
You just taught it a boundary.
The seam steadies again, but now the protection is visible, a warded rhythm braided into the relay itself. For the first time, the pulse looks like it can carry void-born shapes without feeding on them.
Bren
Can you hold that pattern for the others, or does it need to be copied before the thread shifts again?
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve the protective counter-ward through the other relay threads
“I spend the next five hours going through and removing underlying teathers that attract the void parasites, I strengthen the bonds and have the border stop at Ven's chamber, I deconstruct and replace xar, domini and architect wards, symbols, and runes to ensure the base and all levels are secure”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Hours pass in measured silence. Slaan works the hall from seam to seam, lifting out the thin tethers that drink at stray curiosity, then laying in steadier knots where the old lattice frays.
One by one, the old Xar marks, Domini sigils, and architect runes are unpicked and replaced with cleaner forms. The floor answers with a softer pulse, no longer hungry at the edges.
The ward line settles at Ven’s chamber, as if the hall itself accepts a new border. Beneath it, the hidden relay threads stop snagging on memory and begin to carry it without biting.
Nhal stays close, reading the changes with careful stillness. Each time Slaan seals another strand, their shoulders ease a little more.
Nhal
That shape holds. It feels like a path now, not a mouth.
Bren
If it stays this clean, the whole hall can breathe easier.
At last, the lattice lies quiet and complete. The counter-ward runs through the relay threads, strong enough to guide the void beyond the threshold and keep it from tasting the hall.
Quest Complete
Preserve the protective counter-ward through the other relay threads