Three weeks later, Huarti stands atop the jagged Obsidian Spires. Below, a desert caravan slows in the heat shimmer, its scouts raising alarmed hands toward the sand comb castle.
A faint blue pulse still answers from the earth, caught in the ley lines like a heartbeat. It is weaker than before, but it marks the nursery as claimed.
The lead scout points up at the spires, then back at the castle. The nomads do not advance. They watch, unsettled, as if the air itself has changed masters.
The Lead Scout
By the sands... the old ward is gone. Something else sits there now.
Annika Mal emerges at Huarti's side, cobalt light gathering along her wings as she looks down at the caravan and then toward the castle.
Annika Mal
They feel it. Your brood has turned the whole edge of the desert into a warning.
Far below, the scouts kneel rather than flee, offering the first proof that Huarti's influence is spreading beyond the nursery.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expand Huarti's influence over the desert caravans
✓ Quest Accepted
Claim the allegiance of the nomads
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The desert hush breaks as a spear of pale light climbs the nearest obelisk. A nomad envoy, half-veiled in salt cloth, steps from the shadow of the spires with both hands raised. Behind her, Lead Scout gathers the riders in a tight line, while Annika Mal turns sharply toward the nursery gate.
The Lead Scout
Great one, do not take the lights for attack. They come under truce... and they bring a vow for your brood.
Annika Mal
No. That is not truce. Look at their wrists, Huarti. They are marked with ward-ash.
The envoy lowers her veil. Her eyes are steady, but the sand at her feet is already spiraling inward, as if the dunes themselves are listening. She offers a tablet of black glass toward Huarti, and the surface shows a moving map of the castle approach, overlaid with a red crescent sigil.
The Lead Scout
They say another power has been claiming the nomads in your wake. They ask whether you are their shield... or their next eclipse.
“This power must be stopped, i say”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -3)
Huarti
This power must be stopped.
The words fall flat and final over the stone, and the pale light on the obelisk shivers as if it has heard its sentence.
The black glass tablet in the envoy's hands darkens, then clears. The red crescent sigil on it fractures into thin lines, like a seal losing its grip.
Nomad Envoy
Then you name the enemy, not the sand. Good. Show me where your shadow ends, Huarti.
The Lead Scout
The riders will not cross again while that mark burns in the wastes.
Annika Mal
Let it burn. If it reaches the brood, we cut it off first.
The envoy lowers the tablet toward Huarti, no longer offering truce alone, but the first measure of a bargain. Behind her, the caravan line loosens, waiting for his answer.
Quest Complete
Expand Huarti's influence over the desert caravans