Ysra Fen’s blessing follows Silas down the vestry stairs. She remains beneath the cracked funerary bell, while he leaves Last Mercy and returns to the endless road beneath a paling sky.
By midday, the gray road climbs a green hill crowned with flowering standards. Their white petals carry the sign of the Healing Heart, bright against the wind.
A covenant of the Life Goddess gathers beneath the standards, tending herb baskets and prayer ribbons. Among them stands Apphia Vita, a small, powerfully built young-adult woman with dark skin, alert eyes, and tightly bound black hair, wearing green-and-gold vestments.
Apphia Vita
That armor, those marks, and the silence around your steps. You are the Reaping Angel’s disciple, are you not?
Apphia steps forward, broad shoulders squared but hands open and unthreatening. The followers turn toward her, their flowering standards stirring softly above the hilltop.
Apphia Vita
I am Apphia Vita, servant of the Healing Heart. Our covenant offers water, shade, and witness to travelers who carry burdens between life and death.
Apphia Vita
Will you rest among us for a while, Silas Mori, or does the road already call you onward?
✓ Quest Accepted
Earn the covenant’s trust
“A daughter of Life wishes to host a son of Death? Well, I'd be honored to accept the offer Sister Apphia.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -3)
Silas Mori
A daughter of Life wishes to host a son of Death? I would be honored to accept your offer, Sister Apphia.
Apphia’s alert expression softens. She bows to Silas, then turns toward the covenant’s green-and-gold standards as the gathered followers make room beside the herb baskets.
Apphia Vita
Then be welcome, Silas Mori. The Healing Heart teaches us that no traveler should be denied water, shade, or a place to set down his burdens.
Two attendants, two young adult human women in cream tunics with green sashes and sturdy brown skirts, bring a canvas cup and a shaded stool beneath the flowering standards. As Silas lowers himself, the leather strap of his travel pack splits with a sharp snap, spilling dried road herbs and ash across the grass.
Apphia Vita
Your road has taken its due already. Leave the pack where it fell. We will mend it before you depart, and nothing entrusted to you need be lost.
Apphia kneels to gather the scattered herbs, while a covenant keeper, a middle-aged human man with a lean build, cropped brown hair, and a russet work apron over green clothing, steadies the pack. The hilltop receives Silas beneath Life’s bright banners, offering rest without asking him to surrender Death’s sacred charge.
“I ask Apphia if she's ever been outside of the covenant before”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Silas Mori
Sister Apphia, have you ever traveled beyond this covenant’s standards and gardens?
Apphia pauses with a bundle of herbs gathered against her vestments. Beyond the hill, the road descends through green valleys and vanishing sunlight.
Apphia Vita
I have. Before I took my vows, I walked as far as the river kingdoms, carrying remedies where plague and winter had emptied whole villages.
Apphia Vita
I learned that Life’s work does not end at covenant boundaries. It follows the wounded, the hungry, and those who believe no healing remains.
She settles the herbs into a basket and looks toward the distant road. The attendants continue mending Silas’s split pack beneath the flowering standards.
Apphia Vita
I returned because these hands were needed here, and because service is not measured by how far one travels. Still, I sometimes miss the open road.
Apphia Vita
Perhaps the Reaping Angel’s disciple has brought another road to our hill.
“Perhaps youd like to journey the roads once more? My calling is to help those that are dying into the beyond, there is little i can do to save ones life, i am no healer. However if you were to journey with me, you could heal those who are not ready for the domain of the Sacred Skull.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Silas Mori
Perhaps you would like to journey the roads once more? My calling guides the dying beyond, but I am no healer. With you beside me, those not ready for the Sacred Skull might yet live.
Apphia grows still, one hand resting on the herb basket. Wind moves through the flowering standards, carrying the covenant’s prayers toward the descending road.
Apphia Vita
Yes. I will journey with you, Silas Mori. Life and Death need not contend when each serves the hour appointed to it.
Her decision draws startled looks from the attendants. Apphia removes the green-and-gold cord marking her station and places it around the repaired pack, accepting the road’s uncertainty.
Apphia Vita
I must leave my covenant’s daily tending to others, and that is a real loss. But these hands were made to preserve what still belongs among the living.
The covenant keeper tightens the final stitch, but the needle pricks his thumb, staining the leather with a small bright bead. The pack is whole again, though its strap now bears the mark of departure.
Apphia Vita
When the road calls at dawn, I will answer it beside you. You will witness the ending, and I will fight for every life whose ending has not yet been chosen.
✓ Quest Accepted
Journey with Apphia Vita
+ New Item Acquired
Green-and-gold cord
“Understood. When dawn arrives we depart. Until then, perhaps we can soend sone time together and get to know one another?”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Silas Mori
Understood. We depart at dawn. Until then, perhaps we can spend time together and learn more about one another.
Apphia accepts the invitation with a warm nod. She leads Silas to a sheltered place beside the herb baskets, where the standards murmur softly above them and dusk settles over the valley.
Apphia Vita
Then let us begin simply. I was raised among river physicians, where every hand was taught to bind wounds, brew remedies, and listen before acting.
Apphia Vita
The Healing Heart called me later, after I watched too many people mistake endurance for healing. I learned that preserving life also means honoring its limits.
She shares bread and steeped mint while the attendants finish their evening duties. In return, Silas’s presence and the marks of his calling become part of the quiet conversation, without demand or judgment.
Apphia Vita
Tell me what you can, Silas Mori. Not your entire road tonight, perhaps, but what does a servant of Death hope his companion understands?
“Honesty is what i live by. I explain to her my criminal past before being called by the Reaper and that because of my history, sone people we meet in our travel ls may assume ne to be an unnecessary cause of death rather than its benevolent disciple.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -3)
Silas Mori
Honesty is what I live by. Before the Reaper called me, I had a criminal past. I did wrong, and I carry that history openly.
Silas Mori
Because of it, some people we meet may see me as an unnecessary cause of death, not as Death’s benevolent disciple. Their mistrust will be earned, even when my service is not cruel.
The confession settles between them with the scent of mint and fading daylight. Apphia’s fingers tighten around her cup, and a thin line of tea spills across the bread cloth.
Apphia Vita
Then you have given me the truth without asking me to make it gentle. I cannot erase what you did, Silas, but I can judge the servant you are by what you choose now.
Apphia Vita
Some will fear your weapon, your god, or the name behind your eyes. I will remember that a benevolent hand must still answer for the harm it once carried.
She sets the cup aside and wipes the spilled tea from the cloth. The cost is plain: Apphia’s trust remains, but suspicion now stands beside it, named and impossible to hide.
Apphia Vita
At dawn, I will walk beside you knowing all this. If you guide the dying with mercy and protect the living with restraint, the road may teach others what your past cannot.
“I gently take Apphia's hand in mine and thank her fo understanding and not judging”
Silas gently takes Apphia Vita’s hand across the bread cloth. The fading sunlight warms their joined fingers while mint-scented air moves through the flowering standards.
Silas Mori
Thank you for understanding, Sister Apphia, and for not judging me.
Apphia Vita
I have judged nothing lightly, Silas Mori. Understanding is not pardon, but it is a place where truth may stand without disguise.
Apphia Vita’s grip answers his, firm and steady. She does not withdraw her hand, and the last gold of sunset settles across her green-and-gold cord.
Apphia Vita
You have told me what many would conceal. I will not punish honesty by turning away from the person you are choosing to become.
Apphia Vita
At dawn, we walk together. I will watch your mercy, and you may watch mine. Let our deeds speak where old names cannot.
“I look at Apphua, really look at her, and smile as i compliment her beauty”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Silas looks fully at Apphia, taking in her alert eyes, tightly bound hair, and the strength held quietly in her compact frame. He smiles.
Silas Mori
Sister Apphia, you are beautiful. Your strength only makes that beauty more striking.
The compliment lands in the quiet between them. Apphia’s hand tightens around her cup, and a bright spill of mint tea runs across the bread cloth.
Apphia Vita
That is a generous thing to say, Silas Mori. I confess I was prepared for praise of my service, not of my face.
Apphia Vita
He looks at me without disguising the truth, yet without trying to claim anything from it.
She sets the cup aside and wipes the tea with her sleeve, leaving a dark stain along the green fabric. Her smile remains, cautious but unmistakably warm.
Apphia Vita
Still, I will accept the compliment. At dawn, you may learn whether my beauty survives a day of mud, rain, and difficult work.
“I wrap an arm around her shoulders and tell her im certain she'll be even more beautiful by this time tomorrow”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Silas wraps an arm around Apphia’s shoulders, drawing her gently into the warmth of the fading evening. The gesture is steady, familiar, and unforced.
Silas Mori
I am certain you will be even more beautiful by this time tomorrow.
Apphia Vita
You speak with dangerous confidence, Silas Mori. Very well, I will hold you to that promise through every muddy road and sleepless watch.
Apphia leans against him instead of pulling away, her cautious smile becoming bright beneath the flowering standards. Across the covenant’s camp, the attendants exchange amused, approving glances.
Apphia Vita
He offers affection without disguising it as duty, and asks nothing in return. That honesty may be harder to resist than charm.
Apphia Vita
And since you have made such a confident prophecy, I shall give you a reason to remember tomorrow. I know a river village where three healers have vanished from their rounds.
Her revelation gives the morning’s departure a destination before either of them reaches the road. Apphia rests her hand over Silas’s forearm, her expression now warm and resolute.