Annika Mal stands over Merek Vale’s guarded ledger, demanding the truth about the border-rite mark. The archive goes still. Huarti feels it before anyone speaks, that old name, Earlise, pulling tight somewhere beneath the shelves.
Merek Vale
You already touched the root of it. The mark is not mine. It answers to Earlise.
Merek opens the ledger. The page under Annika’s hand wakes with a faint crimson thread, matching the brood-shield’s pulse far below. Dust lifts in a soft gold curl, as if the room itself remembers the nursery.
Annika Mal
So that is the consequence. The archive was keyed to the brood all along.
Merek Vale
Yes. When the name was invoked, the true record stirred. Earlise is the lock, and the answer. The mark leads to the archive’s buried power.
A seam of red light traces across the ledger’s spine, then points deeper into the room, toward a hidden shelf and a stone inset behind it. Whatever was planted before now answers back, ready to be claimed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Claim the archive's buried power
✓ Quest Accepted
Follow the hidden route deeper into the archive