The courtyard freezes as the remembered pressure returns, colder than morning stone. Brenth descends again, emerald scales flashing, his gaze fixed on the crack in the earth where black fluid wells up.
Nanera stands her ground in the center of the courtyard. The children stop mid-drill. Ardis steps forward near the doorway, and the Traveling Healer draws a sharp breath at the sight of the seep.
Brenth
The taint has spread farther beneath the roots than before.
The dark liquid pulses once, then threads toward the bamboo posts like searching ink. The clearer water sound from above answers it, bright and fragile against the chill.
Nanera
The corruption is tied to the pool above.
Ardis
Nanera, tell me what you need. I will hold the children back.
The Traveling Healer
That seep is poison to the grove. If it reaches the pool, the whole village feels it.
Brenth lowers his head once, silent and severe, as the cracked earth spreads another hairline line beneath Nanera's feet.
“I ask Ardis to hold the children back”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
Nanera turns her head just enough to catch Ardis’s eyes over the children’s bent shoulders. The crack in the stone gives a wet, bitter pulse.
Nanera
Hold the children back.
Ardis answers at once, stepping between the children and the spreading stain.
Ardis
I have them. Go.
He opens one arm wide, shepherding the children toward the doorway as the seep darkens another tile seam near Nanera’s feet.
The Traveling Healer
If the pool is feeding this, then we need to reach it before the roots carry it deeper.
Brenth lifts his head toward the bamboo roofs, then back to Nanera, his silence sharp as a blade. The ground answers with one more thin, spreading line.
“I head for the upper bamboo pool”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)