The wardens leave Silas in a small stone chamber adjoining the hospice corridors. His weapons remain secured beyond the barred door, while his rib binding holds tight beneath his tunic.
Brother Caldus
Your days will follow three rules: the ledger records every visitor, a warden witnesses every rite, and no judgment is delivered by your hand within these walls.
Brother Caldus sets a leather-bound visitation ledger on the narrow table, beside a clay cup and a small blue prayer-bell. The chamber contains a cot, a stool, and little else.
Brother Caldus
Those seeking your guidance may come from the hospice wards or beyond them. You may speak, pray, and ease a dying soul, but only with another living witness present.
Brother Caldus
Mercy and law need not be enemies, unless one insists that only a blade can make mercy real.
Brother Caldus
I will bring the first names at dawn. Until then, rest. A confined servant can still serve Death, provided he remembers that the living must answer for what they do.
Beyond the door, blue bells murmur as attendants pass through the corridor. Caldus remains by the table, leaving the ledger open and the quiet conversation in Silas’s hands.
“I accept these conditions. Though i do not believe i will be under them too long. He freed ne once before, and if or when he requires me elsewhere he eill do so again. Until then i shall behave.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -2)
Silas Mori
I accept these conditions. I do not believe I will remain under them long. The Reaping Angel freed me once, and will do so again if he requires me elsewhere. Until then, I shall behave.
Silas lowers himself onto the cot and leaves the open ledger untouched, accepting the chamber, the witness, and the limits placed upon his hand. The movement pulls sharply at his bruised ribs.
Brother Caldus
Then your conduct will be recorded as orderly, and your faith as your own. I will not ask you to surrender either.
Caldus writes the first entry in the ledger: Silas Mori accepts custody without resistance and agrees to obey hospice law. The quill scratches loudly in the confined quiet.
Brother Caldus
That pain is the cost of standing too quickly. Rest, Sir Silas. Obedience need not mean helplessness, and confinement need not prevent service.
He sets the quill aside, checks the rib binding without disturbing it, and places the blue prayer-bell within Silas’s reach. Beyond the door, the wardens remain silent.
Brother Caldus
At dawn, I will bring the first visitor. Until then, behave as promised, and let the hospice witness that your mercy has more than one instrument.
✓ Quest Accepted
Guide a dying soul through a witnessed passage
“I kneel at my bedside with my hands fokded i front of me as i stay up all night praying”
SUCCESS (Great Health, rolled +2)
Silas kneels beside the cot, hands folded before him, while the blue prayer-bell rests within reach. He begins his vigil beneath the warded lamp.
Hours pass in the stone chamber. Corridor footsteps come and fade, the wardens remain beyond the barred door, and moonlight gives way to the gray promise of dawn.
His bruised ribs ache beneath the binding, but Silas stays kneeling through the night, offering steady prayer to the Reaping Angel without asking the hospice to loosen its law.
Near dawn, the blue bell trembles once though no hand touches it. Its small note fades into the first sounds of attendants stirring beyond the corridor.
Brother Caldus
You kept your vigil, Sir Silas. The ledger will record that you obeyed custody without setting aside your sacred duty.
Brother Caldus opens the barred door carrying fresh water and the visitation ledger. Behind him, a gray-tabarded warden, an adult man with a sturdy build, weathered skin, gray hair, and a dark blue warden's coat with brass fasteners waits, prepared to witness the day’s first rite.
Brother Caldus
Rise when your ribs allow it. A dying woman in the east ward has asked for the servant of Death, and she will not be left waiting.
“I rise and ask that i either be taken to her or she be brought to me”
SUCCESS (Great Health, rolled -1)
Silas rises from the cot carefully. The movement pulls hard across his bruised ribs, and the stool scrapes sharply against the stone floor.
Silas Mori
Take me to her, or bring her here.
Brother Caldus
To the east ward, then. The law requires a witness, and the warden will attend us.
Pain forces Silas to brace one hand against the wall before he can straighten. The gray-tabarded warden records the delay and watches him with renewed caution.
gray-tabarded warden
I will witness the rite, but I will also record that your injury worsened while rising.
Brother Caldus
Bring the east ward’s patient here instead. She is too weak for a corridor’s journey, and the chamber can hold the rite.
The warden opens the barred door. Caldus leads Silas into the corridor, and attendants soon bring the dying woman, a frail elderly woman with a hollow-cheeked face, sparse silver hair, and a faded green nightdress to the chamber beneath the blue bell, with the ledger open for witness.
“I gently lift the woman and lay her down on the bed so she can rest comfortably”
SUCCESS (Superb Strength, rolled +0)
Silas bends carefully, mindful of his bound ribs, and gathers the frail elderly woman with steady arms. Her faded green nightdress rustles softly beneath his hands.
He carries her the short distance to the narrow bed and lowers her gently onto the blankets, arranging her shoulders and legs for comfort.
Mother Elian
Thank you, sir. The stones have grown very cold beneath me.
Brother Caldus
Rest now, Mother Elian. Sir Silas has given you a kinder place from which to speak.
The elderly woman settles against the pillow, her hollow cheeks eased by warmth. The blue bell above the bed remains still while the warden records the completed assistance.
gray-tabarded warden
The transfer was gentle and successful. I record no force, only care, despite the strain upon Sir Silas’s ribs.
Mother Elian
Perhaps the servant of Death has come to help me meet the road without fear.
“I ask Mother Elian what she fears about death”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Silas Mori
Mother Elian, what do you fear about death?
Mother Elian’s fingers curl into the blanket. Dawn light lies pale across her face, while Brother Caldus and the gray-tabarded warden remain respectfully silent beside the open ledger.
Mother Elian
I fear that I will vanish, sir. Not pain, nor darkness. I fear no one will remember that I was here.
Mother Elian
My children are gone, and the house where I lived has another name now. Perhaps the world has already begun forgetting me.
Brother Caldus
Your name is Elian, and it is written here. The hospice will not let your passage become an unmarked silence.
The blue prayer-bell gives a faint, answering tremor above the bed. The warden adds Mother Elian’s name to the ledger, his careful script becoming a witness against oblivion.
Mother Elian
Then tell me, servant of Death. If my name is carried beyond this room, will I still be myself when I cross?
✓ Quest Accepted
Reassure Mother Elian that she will remain herself beyond death
− Scene Quest Removed
Guide a dying soul through a witnessed passage
“"Those who fear being forgot are remembered eternally through me, mother Elian. Look" i hold out my arm for her to see and invisible tattoos begin to glow on my arm, each one the name of someone who feared being lost forever, and i explain how because she's letting me guide her to the betmyind, her name will join the list soon.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Silas Mori
Those who fear being forgotten are remembered eternally through me, Mother Elian. Look.
Silas holds out his arm. Beneath his skin, invisible tattoos kindle into pale gold, each glowing mark a name carried for those who feared being lost forever.
Silas Mori
Each name belonged to someone who feared vanishing. Because you let me guide you beyond, your name will join this list soon.
The names shine in quiet succession along his arm, their light reflected in Mother Elian’s damp eyes. The blue prayer-bell gives one soft note above her bed.
Mother Elian
Then I will not vanish. Elian will remain, carried by your keeping when this room and house have forgotten me.
Brother Caldus
Let the ledger bear witness as well. Your arm preserves memory through sacred mystery, and this hospice will preserve it through written name.
The gray-tabarded warden records Elian’s name beneath the rite’s date. Her fingers loosen on the blanket, and the fear of being erased leaves her face.
Quest Complete
Reassure Mother Elian that she will remain herself beyond death