The palace archivist leads Doku into a narrow warding gallery adjoining the sealed vault. The blue folio, clean slates, wax tablet, and treated parchment remain in Doku’s possession.
Suspended crystal chimes hang at varying heights along the passage, each trembling around an invisible current. Beyond the gallery, red seals guard the inaccessible grimoires.
The Palace Archivist
The exercise is simple in principle: maintain concealment while passing between the chimes without disturbing their resonance.
The palace archivist points to faint ripples in the air between the crystals. Their tones answer one another softly, forming a delicate pattern across the gallery.
The Palace Archivist
A careless boundary will brush the currents and sound an alarm. A disciplined one will pass through their gaps without borrowing more force than necessary.
Far behind them, Mistress Vale remains in the schoolroom with the enrolled family, while the palace herald and legal records stay with the refuge’s administration. Here, only the palace archivist and Doku stand beneath the chimes.
The Palace Archivist
Begin when you are ready, Lady Nohara. I will observe the resonance, not interfere with your concealment.
✓ Quest Accepted
Pass through the resonance chimes without triggering an alarm
“I use what I learn and activate teleportation techniques to bypass the chimes without triggering the alarms.”
FAILURE (Mediocre Magic, rolled -1)
“I use what I learn and activate teleportation techniques to bypass the chimes without triggering the alarms.”
FAILURE (Mediocre Magic, rolled +1)
Doku folds the folio’s concealment boundary inward, then anchors a teleportation step to the quiet space between two crystal chimes. Her silhouette vanishes without disturbing the first current.
The displacement catches unevenly. She reappears beside the third chime, but its crystal trembles and releases one clear note through the gallery.
The Palace Archivist
A near miss. You crossed the distance, but the teleport borrowed resonance from the landing current. One note is enough to mark the attempt.
Red ward-lines brighten along the floor, sealing the direct passage without sounding the full alarm. The chimes settle, while the space between their suspended chains remains inaccessible by the same route.
The failed displacement leaves a useful pattern visible: each chime’s current bends around a narrow dead zone beneath the western arch, where no crystal hangs.
The Palace Archivist
There is your opening. Teleport to the dead zone, not between the chimes. The ward-lines now reveal the safe anchor, but this gallery will not accept another identical step.
The western arch glows faintly beyond the sealed crossing, offering a different approach. The folio remains open in Doku’s hand, its teleportation diagram marked by the failed landing.
“I use what I learn and activate teleportation techniques to bypass the chimes without triggering the alarms.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Magic, rolled +1)
Doku folds the folio’s teleportation pattern around the western dead zone, isolating her sustaining medium from the chimes’ currents before releasing the spell.
Space bends soundlessly. She vanishes from the sealed crossing and reappears beneath the western arch, beyond every crystal chime, without triggering an alarm.
The Palace Archivist
The passage is cleared. You reached the dead zone and disturbed none of the resonances.
The cost arrives in the folio. Its teleportation diagram bleaches from the page, the ink consumed by the precise anchor and leaving that exercise unusable.
The Palace Archivist
That technique has spent its written pattern. The working succeeded, but the folio can no longer teach that particular displacement.
Behind Doku, the chimes continue their delicate conversation. Ahead, the western arch opens toward the sealed vault’s outer gallery, and the red ward-lines fade to a steady glow.
Quest Complete
Pass through the resonance chimes without triggering an alarm
Skill Upgrade: Magic Mediocre→Fair